


An Taobh Eile

by Dreadbeasts



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Modern Faery AU, Multi, maybe don't take ancient artifacts from an irish burial mound viren, the Fair Folk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22799275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreadbeasts/pseuds/Dreadbeasts
Summary: The same night that Callum finds a girl with white hair and horns in his living room, his parents vanish into a storm. Viren's refused to help, too concerned with his research into a strange, ancient mirror he brought back from a trip to Ireland. Now it's up to Callum (and Ezran, Soren and Claudia) to track down the strange girl, figure out the rash of strange events in their town, and save their parents before its too late.
Relationships: Aaravos/Viren (The Dragon Prince), Callum & Claudia (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Claudia & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Ethari/Runaan (The Dragon Prince), Harrow/Sarai (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 129
Kudos: 210





	1. Fairy Rings and Ancient Kings

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah yeah I know I haven't finished the Bridges series but I was GRIPPED by this idea and couldn't leave it alone. A warning: this is Aunt Dreadbeasts EXTREMELY on her bullshit, so strap in.

At long last, the final bell of the day rang and the rooms emptied their occupants into the hallways. The students of Katolis High School scurried to meet with friends, rush to practice, find their books, or just get off campus so they could head home. One freshman, however, was in no hurry to leave his final class of the day. He crouched over the long tables of the art room, deep in concentration as he put the finishing touches on his project.

A pair of hands dropped over his eyes, accompanied by the faint smell of incense. “Guess who?” a voice behind him teased. 

“Hi Claudia,” he said flatly, pulling her hands from his eyes. Claudia Faust was a year older than him, and one of his closest childhood friends. Their families had been close for longer than he could remember, and still lived next door to one another. He smiled at the girl, and gestured to the paper in front of him. “Just finishing this up.”

“Sure.” She dropped her bookbag and sat down beside him, watching him work. Callum Lee-Martin had always been a talented kid, and the arts program at Katolis High suited him well, just as she thought it would. Granted, his dad wanted him to pursue sports, and his mom wanted him to concentrate on academics, but his talent lay in the creative studies. Claudia held up one of the pages he’d completed, and scrutinized it. “No more sci-fi?”

“Eh, I’m tired of everyone asking me if I like Star Wars,” Callum said idly, sketching in a panel. “Thought I’d try my hand at fantasy. What do you think?”

It was roughly four pages of a comic about what looked to be some kind of elf wizard arguing with a dragon. There wasn’t any dialogue penciled in yet - Callum preferred to scan his drawings into the computer once they were inked and add text digitally - but the gist of the action was clear from the drawings themselves. 

“I think you’re getting really good at this. You should post them somewhere.”

“Nah, they’re not _that_ good,” he said idly. Callum put his pencil down and stretched. “Soren have practice today or is he gonna drive?”

Claudia rolled her eyes. Her older brother Soren was on the varsity team of nearly every sport KHS had, and given that it was late March, that meant basketball. It wasn’t his best sport, but the team had a shot at state championship this year, so the team was being worked extra hard. “Your aunt’s running them through the wringer. We’re gonna have to walk.”

“Boo,” groaned Callum. “Aunt Amaya’s really got her heart set on finals. At least it’ll look good for Soren’s college applications.” He pushed his supplies into his backpack and stood. 

“Pfft, that dingus wants to take a gap year,” explained Claudia as they walked towards the south doors. They’d be picking up Callum’s younger brother on the way home, as per their usual routine. “He’s also talking about joining the army.”

“Wow, is your dad okay with that?”

“Oh no, Dad’s pissed. He has his heart set on Soren being a Wildcat, even if it means he has to get an athletic scholarship.”

Viren, Soren and Claudia’s father, was a professor of anthropology at Northwestern University in Evanston, the next town over. He prided himself on his research, and it had pained him that his only son was the jockiest jock the state of Illinois had ever seen. In these moments, it was Callum’s father (well, step-father) who corrected his best friend and joked that if he, Harrow Martin, ex football star, had raised two sensitive bookworms, it only made sense that nerdy college professor Viren got an athletic child. 

Callum shuddered at the idea of being forced to go to MORE sports games at Northwestern. It gave him plenty of time to practice his life-drawing skills, but the noise and the crowds bothered him, and he just didn’t care for sports, despite Harrow’s insistence on signing him and Ezran up for little league every spring.

“Just tell your dad you have homework,” said Claudia as they stepped out into the brisk winter air. “That’s what I do.”

“Yeah, and then you spend all your time looking at witchy aesthetic posts on Instagram,” shot Callum back. 

“Well, yeah, who wants to spend their entire Saturday studying?”

“Fair.” They had reached the elementary school now, and children were pouring out of the building. Eventually, the teens spotted Callum’s younger brother, Ezran, conversing with two of his classmates and close friends. He looked up and waved, and then trotted over.

“Hey Callum, can Ellis and Aanya come over to work on a project? We have to make a map showing different kinds of terrain.”

“Sorry buddy, we have that dinner with Claudia and Soren planned.”

Ezran frowned. “Oh, right.”

“Dad texted and said he’s making jelly tarts.”

At this, Ezran brightened. “Can I have one when we get home?”

“Nope, he specifically said that you’re not allowed to ruin your dinner with candy.”

“Aw man,” groaned Ezran, “That means it’s gonna be something gross with vegetables.”

“Veggies are good for you!” said Claudia, chiming in. 

Ezran narrowed his eyes at her. “You tried to feed me muffins made out of crickets. You don’t get to comment on what does and doesn’t taste good.”

“Ouch,” laughed Claudia. “Sass master Aanya’s rubbing off on him, huh?” she said to Callum.

“It is gross that you eat bugs for fun,” said Callum.

“We’re all going to be eating bugs when society collapses,” she said airily. “I’m just ahead of the curve.”

Their path had led them to the edge of the forest that ran between their neighborhood and the schools. It wasn’t a large forest, but the trees loomed tall over the suburban houses, a vestige of the wild country that the Chicago area once had been. The narrow track through the woods was a shortcut, overgrown with weeds and barely a trail at all, but it was one the kids had taken every day to and from school. At least, on the days they weren’t able to get a ride from their parents or Soren. 

The woods always gave Callum a bit of a chill up his spine. The presence of bears or other dangerous creatures in the middle of Katolis, Illinois was quite low. The most realistic worries, in fact, were skunks or ticks. But there was something about the way the gloaming darkness between the trees seemed to absorb the sounds of traffic to suggest something much older, much more primal. 

What didn’t help was the fact that every time they passed through, he found himself resisting the urge to leave the path and wander deep into the trees. 

“Did I ever tell you about the mobsters that were murdered in these very woods?” said Claudia, her voice low, in that way it always got when she was about to share something spooky with the boys.

“Claudia, don’t tell us ghost stories while we’re in the woods!” protested Ezran. “They’re creepy enough!”

“So I can tell you about them after we get out of the woods?” she said, smirking at Callum and tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. 

“Maybe not,” said Callum. “Some of those stories you get off of YouTube are really messed up.”

“Aww, you boys are no fun.” She looked down and stopped dead in her tracks, holding out her hands to keep the boys from stepping any further. “Whoa.”

“Umm, what is it?” asked Callum, leaning around her. 

“Is it poop?” asked Ezran, swinging his backpack around. “I can get out my scout guide and identify it!”

“No, look,” she replied, pointing to the path. Dotted across the trail was a line of mushrooms, in a gentle curve. About three feet further down the path, a similar line bisected the path. Claudia pointed, guiding them to the sides and showing that the mushrooms formed a circle. “A fairy ring.”

Callum rolled his eyes. “It’s just a ring of mycelium from a tree that was probably here and died a long time ago,” he explained. 

In turn, Claudia rolled her eyes. “So what if it is? Isn’t the world a little more fun if magic is real?”

Callum huffed and strode forward, stepping over the mushrooms and continuing down the trail. “Whatever, Claudia. I’m not going tromping through the mud because of a superstition.”

She shrugged, and picked her way around the ring, and Ezran followed her in kind. When Callum gave him a look of consternation, Ez shrugged. “I don’t wanna risk elves turning my teeth into candy corns,” he explained.

“What’s even supposed to happen if you step into fairy rings?” asked Callum, dryly. 

“I think the most common thing is that it makes you vulnerable to attacks by the fae,” explained Claudia. “Some legends say that it’ll cause them to curse you, or even to stab your eyes out. Other legends say it gets you whisked away to their land, or enables you to see them, but it also makes you susceptible to their illusions.”

“ _Or…_ it’s a myth and nothing at all will happen,” reasoned Callum. “It’s just mushrooms.”

Eventually, the trio reached Callum and Ezran’s back yard, and Claudia went to the gate that their yards shared. “Alright, I told dad that I’d make an appetizer for tonight, so I have to get baking. See you at 7!”

“You’re gonna be okay, right Callum?” asked Ezran. “It’d really suck if your teeth turned into candy corn.”

“Fairies aren’t real, Ez,” said Callum, kicking off his boots in the mudroom and shucking his jacket. “Claudia was just messing with us.” He paused. “Also, why candy corn?!” Ezran didn’t answer, instead heading inside.

The smell of their father’s cooking lured them into the kitchen. Their mom, talented though she was in many rights, was just as bad of a cook as her sister, tending to disregard recipes and burn even water. Therefore, it fell to their father to cook. Fortunately, he was very good at it. 

“Hi boys,” said Harrow, beaming as he looked up from the pot of sauce simmering on the stove. “How was school?”

“Fine,” said Callum. He wrinkled his nose. “I have a math test on Friday.”

“Ellis got a new puppy!” said Ezran, excitedly. “Her name is Ava and she’s so cute, Dad! Can I go over to her house tomorrow to see the puppy and work on our group project?”

“Hmm,” said Harrow, thoughtfully. “What kind of group project?”

“We have to make a map out of clay that shows all the geography we’re learning about in earth sciences,” he replied, taking a sheet out of his backpack. 

“I’ll ask your mother when she gets home. In the meantime, you boys get to work on your homework. There’s some fresh mealworms in the fridge for Bait, too, so don’t forget to feed him.”

Ezran brightened. “Did you get him any waxworms? He loves those.”

Harrow nodded and pointed at the fridge. “Only one, though. He’ll get sick if he has too many.” Ezran collected the bugs and dashed upstairs to feed his pet leopard gecko. Callum, meanwhile, sat down at the kitchen table and began pulling out his various books and papers required for homework. 20 math problems from the book, a vocab worksheet, reading an excerpt from his social studies book and 3 short essay problems from his science book. Not that much, considering, but briefly it bothered Callum that he considered that volume of homework ‘not that much.’

“How was work?” asked Callum as he flattened out a sheet of lined paper and opened his math book, groaning internally. They were still on geometry proofs. He _hated_ geometry proofs. 

“It was fine,” said Harrow, giving the pot a stir and then kneeling down to peer into the oven at the slowly simmering pork roast within. “Looks like some storms are brewing out west, so we’ll have to keep an eye on that. Hopefully they’ll steer clear until after dinner.”

Both Harrow Martin and Sarai Lee were meteorologists. Harrow was actually the morning weatherman for the 6 am news, and therefore was off work fairly early in the day. Sarai, however, preferred to do her work behind the camera, and spent her days analyzing meteorological data. All of this was, of course, just a means to fund the couple’s true passion - storm-chasing. It was how the couple met, and Callum and Ezran had spent many nights at Viren’s house (or, now that they were older, alone with Callum babysitting) while their parents pursued tornadoes and microbursts, trying to get the data up close and personal. 

The afternoon whiled on, the boys doing their homework while Harrow bustled around the house, seeing to the preparation of dinner and cleaning of the house. Sarai arrived home some time around 6 pm, and after kissing her husband and ruffling her sons’ hair, went to briefly decompress on her own before company was due. 

And, precisely at 7, the doorbell rang. 

They had dinner with the Fausts fairly often, but it had been some time since they’d done anything like this formally. Viren had been away on a research trip for a few months, and had finally returned home, loaded with research, stories and even a few souvenirs. Naturally, he had insisted on a dinner party, so he could tell them all about his travels with them all present.

The seven of them sat down to the spread - mini vegetable tarts courtesy of Claudia (bug-free, she assured Ezran), a pork roast with mashed potatoes and rosemary scented gravy with asparagus as the main course, and jelly tarts to finish the meal. Conversation around the table was light, with the children discussing their school adventures and Viren catching up with the Martin-Lee family on what he had missed while away in Ireland. 

But, finally, after dessert’s dishes had been put away and various drinks had been poured, Viren busied himself with hooking his laptop up to the large projector that served as the Martin-Lee’s movie-watching screen for a slideshow. 

Soren shifted at the edge of the living room as the others made themselves comfortable. “Hey, uh, Dad, if you don’t mind I’m gonna go uh… tutor Ezran in uh…”

“Teamwork studies,” supplied Ez, spotting a chance to weasel out of a boring presentation.

Viren frowned. “Soren, this is the summary of my research, it’s very interesting. You can sit through--”

“Ah, let the boys run off and have fun,” said Harrow, airily. “Ezran’s just a kid and Soren’s been working hard.”

“Besides, Dad, you already showed me and Claudia this stuff,” added Soren. “I can keep Ezran entertained and that way you can be sure you have Harrow, Sarai and Callum’s rapt attention.”

“Fine,” said Viren with a sigh. “But keep it down, and no rough-housing.”

“First one upstairs has stinky feet!” Sren yelled, bounding up the stairs three at a time while Ezran chased after him, laughing. 

“So, our rapt attention, huh?” teased Sarai. “Must’ve been a fascinating trip.”

“It was!” Viren replied, his usual serious demeanor brightening as it always did when he got the chance to talk about his research. He pressed a button on a small remote, and a presentation began, displaying a picture of a stone ruin. “We began our trip at Rathcrogan, an ancient burial mound in Connacht…”

Throughout the presentation, Viren described Irish burial mounds and neolithic sites, various hills and ruined castles. Callum, whose love of history was only paled by his love of science and art, sat fascinated, as did Claudia, who, despite having heard all this before, was keenly interested for similar reasons. Sarai and Harrow, while interested, were less engaged, listening politely only because their friend was so interested and they cared about his passion. 

He regaled them of the folklore and tales behind Oweynagat, Newgrange Mound, The Hill of Tara, Glendalough Monastery and Knowth. Legends of the mighty Tuatha de Dannan, the ancient Irish kings and how, in his research, he and his team had uncovered many fascinating neolithic artifacts and even some writings, yet to be translated but exciting new research about the pre-history of the area.

And lastly, with a final flourish, he presented souvenirs. 

“I would, of course, never return from my travels empty-handed, and I think you’re going to like these,” said Viren, smiling as Claudia turned the living room lights back on. “It’s not a ‘ _pokey mon’,_ but I do hope Ezran will enjoy this book about the Druids, and the flora and fauna of the British Isles that was important to them.”

“I’m sure he’ll love it,” said Sarai with a smile, accepting it and placing it on the couch beside herself. It was, perhaps, a bit of a dry read, but her younger boy did love being outside in nature, and plants and animals especially were of interest. 

Viren nodded, and returned to the bag between his feet. “I wasn’t sure, quite, what to get you Callum, as I know you have plenty in the way of art supplies, but the opportunity presented itself as we were walking back from _Ráth Laoghaire._ ” He held out a smooth clear stone bifurcated with a jagged, brown streak in the center. 

“It’s a fulgurite in quartz,” supplied Claudia, with a smile. “A piece of lightning trapped forever in stone.”

“Wow, cool,” breathed Callum, taking the stone. He held it up to the light, admiring the cracked, forking pattern.

“And finally, to my oldest and dearest friends,” said Viren with a flourish, “I present to you… this.”

He held out a stone, about the size and shape of a football, flecked with iridescent bits of mica and carved with faint runes. 

“Wow,” breathed Sarai, “That’s beautiful.”

“What is it?” asked Harrow.

Viren beamed. “If my translations are correct, it’s a good luck charm. The ancient Celts called stones like this “Storm Seekers,” and the texts claim it could control the very weather!” He straightened his jacket, composing himself. “Of course, that’s probably where myth blurs into fact, likely it was merely present at a fortunate moment. However,” and here he grinned. “I can’t think of a more fitting owner of a storm seeker than my two favorite Storm Seekers.”

“Viren, we can’t accept an ancient artifact like this,” said Sarai graciously. 

“Oh, don’t worry. The museum isn’t really interested in it, and it’s just a carved bit of feldspar. It’s precious, yes, but we’ve already taken 3D scans for study and it’s been released for private use. Please, I want you to have it.”

Hesitatingly, Harrow glanced at Sarai, before smiling and accepting the stone. “If you insist.”

It wasn’t long before the Fausts said their goodbyes and headed home. After all, Harrow had a 6 am forecast to present and needed his beauty sleep. Callum and his family turned in for bed, and it wasn’t long before he drifted to sleep, dreaming of ancient druids and Irish caves.

A crack of thunder stirred Callum from his sleep. On the nightstand beside him, his phone buzzed softly and illuminated with a text notification.

“ _It’s a big one! Dad and I off to track it, hopefully home b4 school. If not, make sure E brushes teeth and u both eat brekfst. Love u, mom”_

The clock said 3 am. With a groan, Callum rolled his eyes, and rolled over to go back to sleep. Just before he drifted off once more, though, a thump from downstairs startled him back into wakefulness. 

Immediately, he thought _burglar_. 

He scanned the room quickly for something to use as a weapon, and decided on his baseball bat, propped up near the door. Further thumps and bumps did little to deafen his own heartbeat thudding in his chest, but he knew that he was the only defense between the invader and his baby bro, so he bravely crept downstairs and into the living room.

A dark form was ransacking the bookshelf, looking for something. 

Callum steeled himself, tightened his grip on the bat, and prepared to lunge, but before he could, the figure spun around.

A bolt of lightning lit up the room, illuminating the invader’s face. It was a girl, roughly his age, with pale skin and even paler hair. In the strange light of the storm, her eyes seemed to glow an unearthly purple, contrasting sharply with the dark marks on her cheeks.

For a millisecond, their eyes met. She gasped, and in a blink, she disappeared.

Time felt as though it had frozen for Callum, but his heart hammering against his sternum reminded him that he was awake and not dreaming. 

The pile of strewn books on the floor in front of him confirmed it. A strange girl had been in his house, tearing his family’s bookshelf apart, had seen him, and vanished into thin air. 

That alone would have been strange, he mused as he stiffly began to reshelve the books. Except…

Humans didn’t have horns or pointed ears.


	2. Petrichor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callum wakes up on the front lawn and discovers two important things. One, he's starting to see things. Two, his parents aren't what they seem.

The first thing Callum noticed as he wrestled his way out of the bog of sleep was that he was very cold and kind of wet. 

“Callum!” a voice - Ezran’s - called insistently. “Your phone’s been going off for the last ten minutes, get up!”

Blearily, he sat up and realized he was sitting on the front lawn. He rubbed his face, screwing his fists into his eyes to shake off the grogginess, and frantically looked around.

He was outside. In his pajamas. On the front lawn.

“Uh, Ez, why am I outside?” he yelled towards the open upstairs window his brother was leaning out of.

“I don’t know!” the younger boy called back. “I assumed it was some weird teenager thing!”

“Sleeping on the lawn isn’t a--” Callum sighed. It was pointless trying to explain, and he was freezing. It was, after all, just after 6 am in late March, and it was cold out. The ground was wet and muddy, too, from last night’s storms, and he was caked with mud and wet grass. 

Squelching, he stood, and picked his way through the sodden lawn to the front door. 

“Mom and dad went to work without coming home,” Ezran informed him after he’d put on some dry clothing. He was eating a bowl of cereal and watching their father’s morning weather report, while Bait plodded about the counter, following a trail of banana chunks Ezran had left for him.

“Yeah, I figured they might,” said Callum, flopping down next to him and grabbing the cereal. “You brush your teeth?”

“Did you?” retorted Ezran, bits of cocoa puffs spraying across the table as he spoke with his mouth full. When Callum frowned at his comeback, Ezran spun his own phone around to show Callum the text from their mother, ordering Ezran to make sure Callum brushed his teeth.

Callum sighed. “I’ll brush them after breakfast.”

They ate in silence as Ez fed Bait some more banana pieces. Callum had read that leopard geckos wouldn’t eat fruit, but Bait, for some reason, seemed to love it. 

“Dad looks tired,” said Ezran, after a bit of the morning forecast. 

“He and mom were out all night, of course he’s tired.” Callum downed the last of the milk in his bowl, and pushed away from the table. “I’m gonna go take a shower - be sure to put your bowl in the sink, okay?”

Ezran nodded, and flipped the channel to cartoons. 

The bathroom was warm, the radiant heat from the floors easing away the remaining chill from Callum’s feet. He leaned forward into the mirror to scrutinize his chin for _any_ sign of hair, and withdrew in disappointment. He was almost 15, shouldn’t he be shaving by now? But then, he did a double take. 

Were his eyes playing tricks on him, or had his left eye changed color?

He leaned forward again, staring into the mirror. Sure enough, the iris had paled, from green to an almost minty silver. He rubbed his eyes, and looked again. The color remained unchanged, green on the right, silver on the left. 

He pulled away, and retrieved his phone. Strangely, in the phone’s camera, his eyes appeared normal. But when reflected in the mirror, they were different colors. 

With growing unease, the events of the previous night began to return to him. The fairy ring. The stones from Ireland. The girl in his living room.

The storm.

He winced, and shuddered. Why couldn’t he remember the storm? And what had he been so concerned about just now?

He shrugged, and climbed into the shower, letting the warm water rinse away the ache in his bones. 

The day whiled on like any Wednesday. It was an odd-numbered block day, which meant he had language arts, geography, gym and biology. He could have done without the fifth period class, especially since his aunt was the teacher. But the tradeoff was that he had almost an entire two hours in the art room tomorrow. 

All the same, it was as any old Wednesday. At least, until their walk home.

“Ezran’s going to Ellis’s house to work on their group project, and mom said she’d pick him up on the way home from work, so it’s just us today,” Callum informed Claudia as he trailed along after her towards her locker. 

Claudia winced, and turned to give him a sheepish grin. “Actually, I have rehearsal tonight.”

Callum blinked. “Oh! Did you get the part?” The spring play this year was set to be Love Amongst the Dragons, one of Claudia’s favorites, and she had worked hard on her monologue to audition. 

“It’s not the lead,” she said, sadly. “I’m only a sophomore - but I _did_ get cast as Old Lujanne!”

He racked his brain, trying to remember the plot that she’d explained to him hundreds of times. “The comic relief witch?”

“Yup!”

“Hey, that’s pretty cool! Congratulations.”

“Thanks!” Claudia looked at her phone and hissed. “I have to get to the drama room for read through, I’ll see you later!”

“Okay, bye! Break a leg!” He watched her go, and then slumped. He’d been looking forward to an afternoon alone with her. 

Guess this meant he was walking home through the woods alone. 

His steps slowed as he neared the pathway through the forest to his neighborhood. The trees seemed denser and greener than yesterday, a verdant tunnel of petrichor and raw nature, and something primal at the back of Callum’s mind stirred. It was a monkey fear, of wolves and tigers and other things. He shook himself - it was the 21st century, wolves didn’t live in suburban Illinois, and if wolves didn’t live there then _other_ things that were absolutely the stuff of myth definitely didn’t either. 

And yet, as he forced himself to keep walking forward, his heart hammered in his chest. 

Dim memories from the night dodged his full recollection, as though he was trying to catch fish bare-handed in a river. Something about a girl, and the previous night’s storm. 

He came to the mushroom circle, still there from the day before, the caps of the fungi larger than before due to the heavy rain overnight. Callum stared at them for a bit, squinting. There was something odd about them, because while he could plainly see that they were normal toadstools ( _amanita muscaria_ , Ezran’s field guide would have told him), they bore a faint shimmery quality.

Experimentally, he stepped back, and closed his left eye. The shimmering quality vanished, and he was confronted with a normal, mundane ring of toadstools. 

He closed his right eye, and opened his left. Almost immediately, he opened his right again. 

Here’s why:

In that brief second, the world’s colors had shifted and changed, from the dark, too-green of a forest in early spring to a neon haze of greens, blues, golds and purples. The mushrooms themselves seemed larger, and multi-colored, shifting in hues, as was the ground beneath him. A fuzzy haze had appeared around every living thing in sight, many-colored and so bright it almost hurt his eyes. Even his own hand, when he lifted it to shield his eyes, had seemed too-bright and surrounded by white haze. 

The effect vanished with his right eye open, but his left eye seemed to still want to focus on the trippy, unseen world just past his perception. Even now, now that he was aware of it, it kept drifting back into focus, the vision in his right eye being the only thing tethering his view to what he knew to be reality.

Hastily, Callum stepped around the ring of mushrooms and ran down the path towards home. 

He let himself into the house, noting that Harrow’s car was missing from the driveway, and made a beeline for the bathroom. 

His left eye was still silver. 

He concentrated, not looking at his reflection with his left eye, but with his right, and his eye was green. Then, steeling himself, he closed his right eye.

The bathroom was less overwhelming than the forest, at least, but the room still swam with unseen colors. Little motes of starlight fluttered around the corners of the room, and his own reflection shone with color and light, a haze of white with pockets of blue and silver around his body. 

He opened his right eye and stared blankly ahead, as the previous night’s memories once again forced themselves to return.

Stepping into a fairy ring. An ancient Celtic artifact. A girl in his living room with white hair and horns. And the storm.

He sat down on the toilet, numb. 

Callum had woken up on the front lawn because he’d ran out into the storm.

_She gasped, and vanished._

_Shakily, Callum blinked, and looked at the pile of books strewn across the living room floor. A girl had been in his house, ransacked the living room, and vanished into thin air._

_A girl with white hair, horns, and pointed ears._

_Elves weren’t real, though, she had to be some kind of cosplay burglar, right?_

_A scream from outside, above the crack of thunder and howling wind, snapped him back to the present. The scream was his mom’s voice._

_Callum ran outside, just in time to see the lightning illuminate the clouds. Above him was a teeming stream of creatures of legends, seeming to ride with the storm. Elves on horseback and fanged beasts, hobgoblins and shadows, ghosts and wraiths and monsters. And at the front of this awful parade was the largest of them all. With lightning crackling from its mouth, it seemed to be the creator of the storm, trailing the thunderheads in its wake. The beat of its wings created gusts of screaming wind, and clutched in its mighty claw were two small figures._

_“Callum!” his mother shrieked above the wind._

_“Callum, go back inside!” shouted his stepfather, straining to reach him._

_The head of the massive storm dragon swiveled to gaze at the boy, and he suddenly felt very small and very afraid. The great beast opened its mouth and roared, and Callum’s memories ended in a blinding flash._

_He woke up on the lawn to Ezran shouting his name._

“Callum! You home?” called Harrow as the door to the mudroom creaked open. The hammering in Callum’s chest subsided - his father’s voice meant that the storm had all just been a nightmare and he’d been sleepwalking. Of course. 

He splashed some cold water on his face and opened the bathroom door. “Yeah, just going to the bathroom,” he called, heading downstairs. 

Harrow was hanging up his coat in the coat closet. “How was school?” he asked, smiling up the stairs as Callum rounded the corner and began heading down. 

“Fine, I guess. Aunt Amaya has us doing drills for the presidential fitness test.” He brushed past Harrow and picked up his book bag where he’d dropped it. “How was the storm last night?”

“Ah, we chased that thing all the way to Schaumburg, but nothing even remotely useful,” Harrow replied, picking up his own bag and following Callum to the kitchen. “Had to call it quits to get into makeup for this morning’s broadcast.”

Callum nodded, and placed his bag on the table before fetching the tea kettle and preparing to boil some water as Harrow stifled a yawn. “Ezran’s at Ellis’s, by the way. He said mom’s picking him up on her way home.” He glanced over at his yawning father. “Um, want me to get dinner? I finished all my homework in class, so I was just gonna draw, and you look like you could use a nap.”

“That’d be nice,” said Harrow through another yawn.

Callum smiled. “I’ll have mom and Ezran wake you up for dinner when they get home.”

“Sounds good. Good night, Callum.”

“G’night!” Callum turned to pull a mug out of the cupboard, but when he was certain that Harrow had turned to walk away, he sneaked a peek at Harrow’s retreating form with his left eye. 

He had merely wanted to test the weird hazy glowy vision, and had expected haze and colors around Harrow. But when he saw a broad-shouldered elf with shaggy white hair in his father’s clothes retreating from the room, he almost dropped his mug.

The elf/his dad turned at the clattering sound behind him, and Callum snapped his right eye open, returning the illusion to his father. “Is… everything okay?” 

“Yup! I thought I saw a, uh, a spider. Everything’s fine!”

Harrow chuckled. “Well, let’s hope the spiders mind their own business while you’re making dinner.”

“Haha, yeah,” said Callum, placing a hand over his right eye in mock disbelief. The elf returned - white hair, brown skin, golden eyes, large curling horns, purple markings and all. 

“Well, if you’re sure you’re alright, I’m off to bed.” Even his voice sounded different, bearing a distinct lilt that sounded rather like a Scottish burr. 

“Yep! All under control.” With his right eye uncovered, the elf was once again Harrow. Callum waited for him to leave the room and head upstairs, before scrambling to get his phone out of his pocket and frantically message Claudia. 

_Hey Claudia I know ur busy with rehearsal but smth really weird is happening and ur the weird expert plz call ok thx._

It’d be a bit before she texted back, and it was still early in the afternoon, too early to start meal prep, so Callum sat down at the table and began frantically drawing elves. 

He only hoped that Claudia’s knowledge of spooky stuff covered storm dragons and elves replacing his parents.


	3. A House Full of Elves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callum, freaking out, finally hears from Claudia and makes some questionable choices.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the chat fic bit in the middle. Not my favorite format but it fit here.

At 4:30, Callum’s phone rang. 

He lunged for it, practically vaulting across the counter to where he’d left it after messaging her earlier. In the meantime, he’d been trying to draw everything he’d seen and experienced regarding the elves infiltrating his house, and frantically googling anything he could think of pertaining to elves, fairy rings and riders in the middle of the storm.

Unfortunately, Google didn’t have a lot of answers that were helpful. He’d learned that what he’d seen in the storm might have been something called the Wild Hunt, or a Fairy Rade - a large party of otherwordly beings that rode through the sky and abducted unsuspecting humans. And he’d learned about changelings, and that the term didn’t always apply just to babies, but rather to anyone that was swapped with a faery for whatever reason. 

It was weird to think of the elves he’d seen as “fairies” since his predominant notion of them was “Tinkerbell,” but he was starting to think he needed to reevaluate his preconceived notions. 

Still, the phone was ringing, and the display said it was Claudia. He answered hastily. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself,” she replied. “Everything okay?.”

“I uh… yeah. It’s uh…” He hesitated and looked up towards the ceiling, unsure if the elf posing as Harrow was actually asleep or just pretending, and could hear his every word. “I don’t know if it’s something I can talk about aloud, can we talk about it over chat?”

“Um, sure…” The confused frown was evident in Claudia’s voice. “Seriously, is everything okay? Do you need me to come over with some sage or salt or… I dunno, holy water?”

“Nn… no, I don’t think so. Maybe. I’ll tell you more in a bit.”

“Uh, okay. Talk to you soon.”

She hung up, and within minutes Callum’s phone pinged with a notification from the messaging app. 

[Merry_Hexmas]: so whats so spooky we couldnt talk abt it   
[IsThatAnime]: im seeing weird stuff and I want to make sure its not like  
[IsThatAnime]: ****spooky***** weird stuff   
[Merry_Hexmas]: what kind of weird stuff   
[Merry_Hexmas]: Also lol nice sn change   
[Merry_Hexmas]: no more storm wizard?   
[IsThatAnime]: Azymondias is sorcerer, not a wizard. and like   
[IsThatAnime]: ok  
[IsThatAnime]: I had a weird dream last night  
[IsThatAnime]: where i heard someone in the living room and went to investigate and when i got downstairs there was this girl our age down there pulling all the stuff off the shelves  
[Merry_Hexmas]: Ooooooh was she pretty? 👀   
[IsThatAnime]:and when she turned around  
[IsThatAnime]:dfjkfdskhgf not that kind of dream claudia ffs   
[IsThatAnime]: anyway she turned around and she was an elf with like horns and purple markings on her face  
[Merry_Hexmas]: ….   
[Merry_Hexmas]: IDK dude that sounds like one of ~those~ kinds of dreams 🌝  
[IsThatAnime]: 😠  
[Merry_Hexmas]: Lol. Go on.  
[IsThatAnime]: Anyway she disappears when she sees me then i hear mom’s voice screaming my name out in that storm we had last night   
[IsThatAnime]: And when i went outside there was this giant parade or hunting party or w/e going past my house in the sky full of goblins and elves and monsters and a giant dragon carrying my parents in its claws  
[IsThatAnime]: Then for some reason I woke up on the lawn this morning and when I looked in the mirror my left eye was silver?  
[IsThatAnime]: And now i’m seeing all kinds of weird stuff like glowy hazes around plants and people when i close my right eye but the weirdest thing  
[IsThatAnime]: is that when i looked at dad with the glow-vision he turned into a completely different person. Another elf  
[Merry_Hexmas]: wait so h/o  
[Merry_Hexmas]: Was your dad turning into an elf part of your dream?  
[IsThatAnime]:no this just happened right before i texted you.   
[Merry_Hexmas]: did you hit your head?  
[IsThatAnime]: afaict no?  
[Merry_Hexmas]: drugs?  
[IsThatAnime]: no!!  
[Merry_Hexmas]: k so you’re seeing things but only with the left eye  
[IsThatAnime]: yeah  
[IsThatAnime]: like… i looked in the mirror and i had this weird white mist around me but it had blue and gold patches in it?  
[Merry_Hexmas]: that sounds like auras  
[IsThatAnime]: whats that  
[Merry_Hexmas]: uhhh it’s like ur energy or w/e? It’s actually a thing living creatures have a weak electrical field around our bodies but like some ppl can see them?  
[Merry_Hexmas]: and your dad looks like an elf?  
[IsThatAnime]: no he’s like a completely different person, different height and voice and everything  
[IsThatAnime]: just in dad’s clothes  
[Merry_Hexmas]: huh. Weird.  
[Merry_Hexmas]: … wait  
[Merry_Hexmas]: HOLY SHIT WAIT OMG  
[Merry_Hexmas]: YOUS TEPPED INTO THE FAIRY RING  
[Merry_Hexmas]: OMG CALLUM   
[IsThatAnime]: what? Would that mess up my vision!??  
[Merry_Hexmas]: I mean normally the stories say people who go into fairy rings get kidnapped by them but i guess it could give someone the second sight  
[Merry_Hexmas]: are you sure last night was really a dream  
[IsThatAnime]: IDK? I don’t like what it implies tho  
[IsThatAnime]: i did some reading before you called so like i know about the wild hunt and changelings and w/e but that’s just fairy tales right  
[Merry_Hexmas]: bruh your the one that texted me all OMG CLAUDIA GHSOTS  
[Merry_Hexmas]: *ghosts   
[Merry_Hexmas]: *you’re  
[IsThatAnime]: i did not say ghosts i said spooky stuff  
[Merry_Hexmas]: ok w/e but still 👻  
[Merry_Hexmas]: you’re not playing a trick on me right  
[Merry_Hexmas]: like this isn’t some elaborate set-up to make fun of me?  
[IsThatAnime]: I might not believe all the woo-woo stuff you’re into but I wouldn’t make fun of you, c’mon  
[Merry_Hexmas]: ok   
[IsThatAnime]: oh! I did some sketches uhhh here’s what i saw  
[IsThatAnime]: elfdad.jpg  
[IsThatAnime]: elfgirl.jpg   
[IsThatAnime]: wildhuntidk.jpg   
[IsThatAnime]: img2073.jpg and a pic of my eye   
[Merry_Hexmas]: Well ur eye looks normal to me   
[Merry_Hexmas]: also dang your elf dad is hot   
[Merry_Hexmas]: douevenlift.jpg   
[Merry_Hexmas]: elf girl’s pretty cute too  
[IsThatAnime]: cmon claudia this is serious i’m lowkey freaking out  
[Merry_Hexmas]: ok ok well uh  
[Merry_Hexmas]: assuming that your parents did get taken by the wild hunt and replaced by hot elves there’s a few things you should do  
[Merry_Hexmas]: 1, confirm with your magic vision that your mom’s been replaced too  
[Merry_Hexmas]: 2, make sure ezran is safe and also not an elf. If he’s still Ezran, LMK and i’ll send you a protection sigil  
[Merry_Hexmas]: 3, read everything u can about fairies and protecting yourself, if its on Tumblr ignore it its gonna be a lot of bad takes based on DND and junk not actual folklore.   
Merry_Hexmas]: I’ll send you some links when I get home  
[Merry_Hexmas]: and like i can make you an iron charm or something because the first thing is making sure you and ez dont get taken too  
[IsThatAnime]: … damn thats like serious.   
[IsThatAnime]: You think my mom and dad are gonna be ok if they really did get taken?  
[Merry_Hexmas]: I mean ill be honest, probably not  
[Merry_Hexmas]: but the first priority is making sure you boys are ok before hauling off on a rescue mission  
[Merry_Hexmas]:: read some celtic folklore there’s tons of stories about how to get loved ones back from them  
[Merry_Hexmas]: if you can get some salt and iron - actual iron like railroad spikes or nails or smth not steel or alloy - that should help protect you.  
[Merry_Hexmas]: OH and dont let them know you can see them  
[IsThatAnime]: ok this is all super crazy and ngl im flipping out  
[Merry_Hexmas]: hey, it’s gonna be okay. I’ll ask my dad about the lore around this kind of stuff tonight too he might have an idea.  
[IsThatAnime]: Don’t tell him I think my parents got taken.  
[Merry_Hexmas]: why? Pretty sure he sorta-kinda believes this stuff and he’s the expert on ancient celts  
[IsThatAnime]: I’m not sure *I* believe it yet.   
[IsThatAnime]: Let me just… make sure Mom’s still Mom first okay? It could be my eyes playing tricks.  
[Merry_Hexmas]: ok you do you. Keep me posted  
[Merry_Hexmas]: I gotta go now, soren’s done with practice. Laterrrrrrrr

Callum laid his phone down on the table and exhaled, sinking back into the chair, before abruptly standing up to get a glass of water to calm his nerves. 

If Claudia was right - and he wasn’t getting worked up over a temporary lapse in sanity or whatever - then his parents had been taken by fairies and replaced with elves. The idea shook him to his core but also raised several questions. Why? What on earth had motivated them to abduct his parents in the middle of the storm? And were his parents okay? What would Ezran say to all of this? He didn’t want to needlessly worry his brother. But Claudia made it sound like he and Ez were actually in danger?

He felt his breathing quicken and his pulse increase. He took one slow, shuddering breath in, and then exhaled. He’d talked about this with his therapist at his last session - about catastrophizing and taking a step back to gather all the information before panicking. About grounding himself before he spiraled out of control.

He took another slow, deep breath, and as he counted on the exhale, he glanced around the room. Five things he could see - the calendar, the stove, the microwave, his art on the fridge, his sketchbook. Four things he could hear - the clock, the fridge humming, the sink dripping, the birds outside. Three that he could touch - the bumps in the wallpaper, the cabinets, the counter. Two that he could smell - the garbage (gross) and the bag of coffee in the cupboard he was nearest. And one that he could taste. He picked up a glossy red apple from the fruit basket on the counter and sat back down.

Okay. The first thing he’d have to do was confirm that his mother was also an elf wearing his mom’s face. Then, to verify that it wasn’t his imagination going haywire, he’d have to try and catch them doing or saying something that his parents wouldn’t, try to catch them in the act of, well, acting. That would be tricky, but he’d be patient and try to observe. 

Until then, of course, he had to follow up on Claudia’s advice and read some folklore about humans being taken into fairyland. Just as he was reaching for his phone to start googling, a message from Claudia popped up.

“Start with fairyist.com,” read the message. “Lots of modern-day experiences and encounters, plus older beliefs. Look up their fairy census.”

And so he did just that. The census mentioned was a catalogue of people’s experiences, hundreds upon hundreds of stories from the last 50 or so years, from all parts around the world. He suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and groan internally, especially since the document was festooned with paintings of glossy-eyed women with butterfly wings. 

He read a story here and there before he looked up at the clock and swore. It was 5, which meant his mom and Ezran would be home in an hour, and he’d need to have dinner on the table by then. He jumped up and began pulling the requisite ingredients out for chicken alfredo and salad. 

It was a dish he’d made many times, and so he zoned out some while cooking. He squinted down at the pan, and was surprised to see that squinting, even with his right eye open, brought out more of the visions his left eye was showing him. “The second sight,” a few websites had called it. (He tried to put the story of the midwife who’d accidentally touched her eye with a sight-granting ointment and was blinded by an enraged fairy out of his mind.) 

His hands shone silver and white as he worked, and the vegetables and chicken, although not as vivid as his living hands, also shone faintly white, with small twinkling motes above them. The dried noodles were much duller, and when he looked in the cabinet where Sarai kept her secret stash of Oreos, the cookies looked no different than they did normally. Dull, even. Callum concluded that fresh foods bore more “energy”, as Claudia had called it, than super-processed ones. 

His health teacher would have a field day if she knew. 

The door to the mudroom swung open and Ezran trundled in. “Hi Callum!” he called cheerfully, kicking off his shoes and dropping his backpack at the kitchen table. 

“Hey Ez,” replied Callum with a wave before turning back to stir the simmering chicken and ladle a spoonful of marinade over the meat. “How was it at Ellis’s?”

“Her new puppy is SO CUTE!” he said, wandering over to the kitchen to look around his brother. “Whatcha making? Chicken alfredo?”

“Yup, and salad.”

“Aw man, not salad.”

“Ez, you like salad.”

Ezran wrinkled his nose. “Not when you put THESE on them,” he accused, holding up a bell pepper. 

“So I won’t put any peppers on yours. Calm down.”

“Hellooooo,” called Sarai as she bustled into the mudroom herself, having locked the car and grabbed some equipment out of the back seat. 

“Hey mom,” said Callum casually, doing his best to pretend nothing was wrong and he did not under any circumstance suspect her of being not what she seemed. 

“That smells great,” she replied, taking her own shoes off before entering the kitchen and staring in dismay at the cluttered table. “Boys, what did we say about dumping your stuff here instead of taking it up to your rooms?”

“Oops, sorry, Mom,” said Ezran sheepishly, going to gather his things. “I’m gonna go feed Bait. Is it okay if I read in my room until dinner is ready?”

“That’s fine, but make sure you wash your hands before coming down.”

Ezran smiled and trotted upstairs, and Sarai walked over to Callum. “No hug for your mom?”

“What? Oh, sorry, I was watching the chicken.” He put the spoon down and gave her a brief hug. She didn’t not feel like his mom. In fact, she felt the way she was supposed to feel. He pulled away and turned back to the cooking. “Sorry about my stuff on the table, I was working on homework and drawing before I started on dinner. I’ll clean it up before I set the table.”

“Okay. Your dad upstairs?”

“Yeah, he said he was going to take a nap and wanted you to wake him up before dinner.”

“Ooooh.” Sarai waggled her eyebrows at Callum. “With pleasure.”

“Mom, gross,” protested Callum. In response, she smirked at him and sauntered out of the kitchen towards the stairs. He waited until he was certain her back was turned, and closed his right eye and turned. 

All he saw was a flick of white trailing behind a figure rounding the corner. 

His mother’s hair was dark brown.

Heart pounding in his chest ,he shut off the stove (the chicken was more or less done anyway), and dashed into the adjacent dining room. The dining room was directly below his parents bedroom, and if he stood under just the right vent, he could hear everything they had to say. 

Usually he used the vent to suss out what he and Ez were getting for Christmas, although he never told Ez his secret - especially since the boy still believed in Santa. Granted, it hadn’t worked since Sarai and Harrow caught on, but maybe...

He strained his hearing. 

“There you are,” said Harrow, tinny through the vent’s acoustics. Callum slowly closed his right eye and Harrow’s baritone shifted raspier and more Scottish. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d gotten lost.”

“The elder boy knows,” said another voice, the accent less Braveheart and more BBC. Also, the second voice was decidedly male , which threw Callum off. Was a male elf masquerading as his mom? And if so…. Why?

There was a pause. “Callum? He knows... about us?” said the first voice.

“Yes. He left his book of drawings on the table. He has drawn what is undeniably you and Rayla.”

“He seemed completely unaware when I spoke with him earlier.”

“Yet he has somehow drawn a very accurate likeness of you. And we know he saw Rayla last night.”

There was a long pause. “So he has the sight, then?”

“Surely he must. If he has it, then we’ll have to do something about it.” Callum swallowed and tried very hard not to think about the midwife and how the fairy who had found out about her second sight had ‘done something about it.’

Another pause. “Runaan, he’s only a child. We agreed to this because the boys are innocent and shouldn’t have to pay for their parents’ sins. We can’t… hurt the boy merely for something outside of his control.”

“What do you propose we do, Ethari? Sit him down and have a nice chat?”

Runaan and Ethari and Rayla. Callum filed the names away for later.

“You make it sound so difficult, my heart,” said Ethari. “It’d be far better than continuing to play-act as his mother when he knows you aren’t. Even if you did take his sight, he’d still know. And besides, he may know where the egg is.”

Biting back a sob, Callum dashed back into the kitchen and threw himself into mindlessly preparing the rest of dinner, pushing the thoughts far away from him. His parents were gone, and replaced by beings who didn’t, couldn’t exist, and yet there they were, upstairs, discussing casually whether or not they were going to blind him. And never mind that, his parents were gone for some unspoken crime and he had no idea where they were. All this over something having to do with an egg.

He slammed the knife down and bit the inside of his cheek, trying to contain his emotions.

Then, he got an idea. Claudia had said that fairy rings were the gateway to the other side, hadn’t she?

He grabbed his phone, his keys, his shoes and his jacket and walked determinedly into the woods.


	4. The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Callum makes a perhaps-not-wise bargain to get his parents back.

The last fingers of daylight were clutching at the horizon when Callum approached the fairy ring.

Fairy rings were supposed to be the gateway between worlds, right? And the elves pretending to be his parents had made it sound like they had no intention of harming Ezran. He’d be safe - or at least, Callum hoped.

He breathed deliberately to slow the hummingbird stutter of his heartbeat, and lifted one foot to step into the ring.

“Ya sure you want to do that?” said a voice above him, thickly accented to the point where it sounded like “ye sure ye wanny do tha?”

Callum froze mid-step and stumbled, windmilling his arms to not fall over into the mud. The voice, female, laughed, and he glared in its direction.

There was a girl about his age reclining in the fork of a tree branch. She was pale and pale-blonde, and he squinted slightly at her outdated clothing choices. Callum was no fashion expert, but he could tell the girl was dressed more like his mom did in old high school photos than anyone he went to school with. Maybe she was going for a vintage look?

“ _ Oh _ , it’s you!” said the girl, and she nimbly jumped down from the tree, landing beside Callum. 

“Um, have we met before?” he asked, stepping away slightly. 

She rolled her eyes dramatically and shook her head. “I  _ could _ just blame it on forgetfulness, but you stormed out here like you intended to hop on over to the other side, which means you’ve noticed something’s amiss.” She reached out and flicked his forehead. “Look again, dummy.”

Look… again? He closed his right eye, and sure enough, the strange girl transformed into the elf he’d seen the night before. Callum gasped, and then glowered. “You!”

“ _ There _ ya are,” she said, stepping back and leaning against the nearby tree. “So what’s your plan, then, just gonna charge off into the unknown and demand your folks back?”

“Where are they?!” Callum demanded, his voice tight with restrained anger.

She shook her head. “Nah, that’s not going to get you anywhere,” she quipped. “There’s  _ rules _ to these things, ways it’s done. You can’t just go in shouting and making demands, ‘less you wanna join your parents where they are.”

His face crumpled in sorrow. “Please,” he begged. “Where’s my mom and dad?”

The elf girl opened her mouth as though she wanted to make another quip, but at the pained look on the boy’s face, she felt a twinge of pity. No sense in provoking him, she figured. “They’re safe,” she stated. “The Queen merely took them because they’ve got something of hers and she wants it back. Can’t just let them get off with a slap on the wrist.”

“What is it? Is it that rock Viren brought back from Ireland?” He scrambled to remember the name. “The… the Storm Seeker?”

Her eyebrows zipped upwards. “About this big,” she asked, gesturing with her hands, “with runes carved into it?”

Callum nodded.

“Do you know where it is?!”

Callum frowned. “My parents got taken for accepting a gift? That’s messed up!”

“It wasn’t anyone but the Storm Queen’s to give!” retorted the girl. “As if she’d give it up in the first place. It was stolen!”

“My parents aren’t the ones that stole it!”

“They’re the last known owners, and are responsible for it!”

“They’re innocent!” insisted Callum. “How were they supposed to even know?!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“Yes it does!!” Callum was shouting now, angrier by the second. “I don’t care what kind of arbitrary, stupid rules you have on that side, it’s a mockery of justice and it’s unfair!”

“Your definition of ‘fair’ means nothing to us,” said the elf, her voice icy. “What’s to stop me from plucking your stupid eyeballs right out of your head, or twisting your tongue backwards, or completely addling your mind?” She took a menacing step toward him. “I could do it, y’know. Be as easy as picking flowers.”

Callum was shaking, with rage or fear he wasn’t quite sure, but he stood his ground. “So then why don’t you?” he asked, his voice tight as he tried to hold his feelings in.

The elf blinked, surprised. “What, you  _ want _ me to kill you?”

“What I  _ want _ is my mom and dad back! Why is that so hard?!”

“Well,  _ someone _ has to pay the price for stealing the Storm Queen’s most treasured possession!” she shouted. “It’s justice! No, actually,” she hesitated, and thought it over. “It’s  _ generous _ that your parents were taken. If it were to truly be justice, it’d have been you or your brother. Eye for an eye.”

Callum clenched his fists.  _ The egg _ , the elf pretending to be his mom had called it. 

The storm seeker was an egg. No wonder this queen wanted it back so badly. 

He spoke next without thinking. “Then take me instead.”

That caught the elf off guard. “What?”

“If it’s truly justice, right? Kid for a kid. I can take the storm seeker - the… the Queen’s egg… back to her, along with myself. She can keep me, and let mom and dad go.”

“You’re crazy,” she said in disbelief. “Why would you offer yourself up as prisoner?”

“Because Ezran deserves to have parents who aren’t fakes, for one. And…” his rage was dissolving, leaving the bubble of grief behind it. Callum sniffled and choked back a sob. “They were so scared. They don’t deserve this.”

“Oh, come on, don’t cry,” she asked, voice suddenly gentle. She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Look. Okay. Go home, get the egg, and I’ll come back and get you just before midnight.”

He rubbed his face and looked at her with incredulity. “What? You’re coming with me?”

“Well, yeah, I’m not just gonna let some dumb human blunder through the other side and get himself killed before he ever gets the egg to the queen.” She folded her arms. “Unless you don’t want my help.”

Callum imitated her pose, and narrowed his eyes, the memory of all the folklore he’d read that afternoon still quite fresh. “No, the help would be nice,” he said, doing his best to play it cool. “I’m just curious about what’s in it for you.”

She looked away with a scoff. “It’s my business.”

“Hmm, yeah, if you were a human I might believe you, but I don’t want you showing up in ten years claiming my firstborn child for your own or something.”

“What? No! What would I want your kid for?!”

“That seems to be the default in all the stories!”

“I don’t want your stupid child!”

“Why? You think my kids wouldn’t be good enough?”

She turned a faint shade of mauve. “I don’t want  _ anyone’s _ children! For pity’s sake, I’m too young to be a mother!”

It was Callum’s turn to blush. “You… you guys raise the babies you take?”

“Well, yeah! They’re babes, what else would we do with them?”

“I dunno… eat them?”

The elf frowned. “The sort of folk on the other side that would eat a wee babe aren’t the sort that would politely bargain with you for them. They’d just take them, and you’d never know what happened. Some human would put their picture on a milk carton, never the wiser that they were in some wight’s stomach.”

Callum shuddered. “So you don’t eat babies.”

“Do you want my help or not?”

“Not if it’s got some kind of mystery clause attached.”

She threw up her hands and groaned. “ _ Fine _ . I freely give you my help, no strings attached. After we return the egg and you get your audience to make deals with the Storm Queen, we go our merry ways and I never bother you again for anything. Deal?”

“Deal.” The air briefly pulsed around them, the magic of the deal settling into their skin. A white ribbon appeared around the elf’s wrist, and an identical one appeared around Callum’s. It wasn’t visible to his normal eye.

The elf shook her head. “There. Now that’s done, what am I supposed to call you?”

“Callum,” he said, without thinking. “Wait - shoot! Uhhh…”

The elf rolled her eyes again. “Relax, names work differently for humans. You plaster them everywhere for anyone to see, it’s not the same anymore.”

“Oh.”

“Still, wouldn’t advise just telling everyone so casually on that side.”

“Right. Sorry…” He paused. “Um, what about you? What’s your n-- what do I call you?”

“Most folks call me Rayla.”

“Rayla! Okay. Cool.” He shuffled nervously. “So I, uh… probably should go back now, huh?”

“Yep. I’ll be back for you at midnight. Don’t forget.”

“Okay. Cool. Great. Um…. bye!” He turned awkwardly, and made his way back to the house, leaving the strange girl in the woods.

Back at the house, his family (well, Ezran plus the two elves masquerading as his parents) were seated at the table. The food had already been served up, and everyone looked up at him expectantly as he entered the kitchen. 

“There you are!” said Ethari-as-Harrow, brow furrowed with concern. “Ezran said he saw you take off for the woods. We were about to come looking for you.”

“Oh! Uh…” Callum scrambled for an excuse. “There was a, uh, a dog. A big one, digging around our fence. I went to chase him away and he bolted into the woods before I could get a good look at his collar to get his owner’s information.”

Runaan-as-Sarai spooned some cheese onto the pasta in front of him and gave Callum a worried frown. “Callum, what if that dog had rabies?”

“He didn’t look like he did,” said Callum defensively as he speared some salad onto his fork. 

“Or she,” piped up Ezran. “What kind of dog was it, Callum?” Ezran, ever the animal lover, had latched onto the fact that there was a dog and glossed entirely over the potential dangers.

“It doesn’t matter what kind it was. Don’t approach strange dogs,” said Runaan-as-Sarai, tersely. “And don’t run off like that, Callum, not without telling someone first.”

Dinner continued normally - well, at least as normally as such a thing can go when two people present aren’t who they seem to be. Runaan and Ethari were quite skilled, it turned out, at impersonating Sarai and Harrow, right down to their mannerisms and certain vocal quirks. If Callum were to guess, he would have put it down to magic, but he figured that at some point on his rescue mission he could find someone that would explain it better. 

After dinner was eaten and dishes were done, Callum excused himself to his room to work on homework. “Math test on Friday,” he said with a sheepish smile. “Remember?”

Once safely in his room, though, he didn’t study. Instead, he packed a bag. Changes of clothes, some dry shampoo and soap, a few bags of chips and his trusty sketchbook. He then settled in to pretend to study, and waited for midnight.

At 9 pm, he heard Ezran call “goodnight!” and head upstairs. He listened, distracted, to his brother’s night-time routine of teeth-brushing and face-washing, hoping Ezran wouldn’t bother him and ask too-curious questions. But alas, at 9:05 there was a soft knock on the door that lead from Callum’s room to their shared bathroom. 

He tried to ignore it, but Ezran was insistent. Another knock, and a loudly whispered, “Callum. Callum I gotta talk to you about something.”

“Ez, I’m studying. Go to bed,” he said, trying to deflect. 

“No you’re not,” replied the younger boy. “Open the door, it’s about mom and dad.”

That got Callum’s attention. He got up quietly, and opened the door just a crack. “What about mom and dad?” he whispered.

Ezran pushed his way into Callum’s room. “We gotta talk in here because your room’s further away from theirs,” Ezran explained. “And I don’t want to get body-snatched.”

Callum blinked. “Body snatched?”

Seriously, Ezran nodded. “Mom and dad have been replaced with pod people.”

“Uh…” Callum wasn’t sure how to react. “What makes you say that?”

“First of all, Mom didn’t want to listen to old 90s music in the car. She  _ always _ listens to old 90s music when she’s tired, she says it helps her stay awake.  _ Then _ , when we got onto Sheridan, she drove the speed limit! So I thought, okay, maybe Mom’s extra super duper tired, but when we got home she walked right past her secret stash of candy in the garage.”

“She has a secret candy stash in the garage?”

Ezran nodded. “She always gives me a piece if it’s just me and her. But she didn't even know there WAS a candy stash!”

It was odd, considering their mother’s notorious sweet tooth, to not remember she had a stash of snacks hidden somewhere. 

“Dad didn’t make any weird jokes when I got home, Mom didn’t need her ‘mom time,’ Dad acted bored when I wanted to tell him about teaching Bait tricks, but do you want to know the  _ weirdest thing of all _ ?” 

Wordlessly, Callum shook his head yes.

“ _ There. Was no.  _ **_Dessert_ ** **.”** Ez stamped his foot in indignation. “Ten whole years of life, and there’s always dessert after dinner, even if it’s just fruit! Remember that time Dad forgot to make one and Mom made him drive down to the 7 Eleven to get some ice cream? He ran! And do you want to know what mom said when I asked about dessert after dinner tonight?”

Again, Callum nodded. 

“She said,” and here Ezran scowled and did his level best to imitate what he’d been told earlier, “‘Ezran, you don’t need sweets every night, it isn’t good for you.’”

“Okay, mom would never say that in a million years.”

“What are we gonna do, Callum? Mom and dad got abducted by aliens!”

“Uh… maybe not quite… aliens…”

Ezran spun on his heel. “You knew?!”

“I… sort of? That’s the real reason I ran out to the woods, I had just found out and was upset.”

“How?”

And so, Callum explained everything. About the storm, the sight, and the pact he made with Rayla. Ezran listened, wide-eyed. 

“I knew it was an egg,” he said, finally, once Callum was finished.

“Wait, what?”

“The rock mom and dad got last night. I had a dream where I heard someone crying in their study and it was an egg, so I went down there and the rock looked like the egg in my dream.”

“Did you… leave it there?”

“What? No, I took it upstairs and made a warming lamp for it out of Bait’s old tank. It’s an egg, it needs love and warmth. Maybe you can look at it with your magic vision!” Ezran dragged his brother through their bathroom and into his room. Sure enough, the stone was sitting in some folded towel and clothing, and a heat lamp had been positioned above it. 

Callum squinted at the stone.  With the sight, it glowed a vivid stormlight blue, with motes of light shining beneath its surface. It positively radiated with energy, a magic he could see and even feel, ever so slightly. It was  _ definitely _ an egg.

“Viren kidnapped a baby dragon,” said Callum, a little horrified. 

“A dragon?” said Ez, excited. “The Storm Queen’s a dragon?!”

“I don’t know, I’m just guessing based on what I’ve seen and heard,” said Callum. “But yeah, if I  _ look _ -look at it, it’s sorta… glowing blue and has these shiny bits, like the back of a CD.”

“Cool…” breathed Ezran. “What do I look like?”

Callum turned his gaze to his brother. Ezran glowed with a faint white light, like most living beings seemed to, but centered around his heart and his head bloomed a rich green light, the color of new grass in the springtime. Pink motes flickered throughout the emerald halo around his heart. It was so him, so Ezran, Callum felt a little embarrassed, like he was looking at his brother’s soul.

“So what do I look like?” asked Ezran, eagerly. 

“It’s… kinda hard to explain,” said Callum, but he spied Ez’s colored pencils on the desk, and elected to sketch it out for him instead. 

Ezran held up the drawing, scrutinizing it, before he clutched it to his heart warmly. “This is so cool, Callum. I wish I could see you like this, I bet you look really awesome.”

“I dunno, I mostly saw white fog when I looked in the mirror,” he replied, sheepish. “Anyway, you should get to bed. It’s past your bedtime.”

“Pfft, bedtime schmedtime. You said your elf friend was gonna be here at midnight.”

“Yeah, and then we’re going on a dangerous journey to rescue mom and dad.”

“Right,” said Ezran, cheerfully, as he hoisted the egg and carefully laid it inside his backpack. “And I’m going, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Rayla and Ezran join the party!


	5. A Wrench in the Works

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ezran insists on joining Callum on his mission to rescue their parents. But things don't go as planned when Rayla shows up with bad news...

“Absolutely not.” Callum folded his arms across his chest and glowered. Yes, his idea to traipse into the woods and rely on the help of an elf to rescue his parents from actual dragons was a bad one, and dangerous, but he was almost 15 and could make his own choices. Ezran, on the other hand, was a kid, and there was no way on Earth that he was also coming.

“Callum, come on, they’re my parents, too! I can help!” Ez mimicked Callum’s crossed arms and pouted. “I can take care of the egg, and I got my Nature Scouts guide to help if we run into any dangerous animals!”

“Ez, I’m going on a dangerous journey to exchange myself for mom and dad so they can take _care of you_. That’s totally pointless if you’re not here when they get back!”

“So we both go, and we can convince the Queen to let us all go home as a family because we’re bringing her family back to her!” Ezran hoisted the backpack up and went to his drawer, packing socks, underwear and soft t-shirts around the stone egg nestled inside.

“No! I’m not going to let you walk into danger like this.”

“And _I’m_ not going to let _you_ walk into danger either. I’m coming, and you can’t stop me.” Ezran stuck out his chin defiantly. “And if you try to leave without me I’ll just follow you, which will be more dangerous because I’ll be far away from you when giant owlbears try to eat me.”

“What? Owlbears? C’mon Ez, this isn’t _Dungeons & Dragons _, those aren’t real.”

“They could be! We’ve got a stone dragon egg and you said _elves_ replaced our parents, who are in fairy jail! That’s a dungeon AND a dragon!”

Callum sighed, finally caving. The Nature Scouts guide would be helpful, he decided, and having Ez near him where he could keep an eye on him and the elves impersonating their parents couldn’t hold him hostage wasn’t a bad idea either. “Fine,” he said, relenting. “But you have to _promise_ you’ll stay out of danger if I tell you to run.”

“Only if _you_ promise not to be a big dumb overprotective jerkface.”

“Fine.” Callum rubbed his face in exasperation. It was getting close to 10 pm and he was getting antsy. “Go ahead and try to sleep. I’ll wake you up at midnight when Rayla gets here.”

“Rayla? Is that the elf who’s gonna take us to see the Storm Queen?”

“Yeah. But it’ll be a lot easier if you sleep first, okay?”

“Ugh, Callum, how can I sleep when we’re about to go on an adventure?”

“It’ll make waiting feel like less time?”

Ezran rolled his eyes and plodded over to his bed, sitting down on the edge and hefting his backpack up to his side. “I’m keeping the egg so you don’t ditch me.”

“I’m not gonna ditch you, promise. Go to bed.”

“You go to bed, too.”

“Alright, alright.” Callum flicked off the lightswitch, leaving Ezran in the soft blue glow of his night light. He passed through their shared bathroom and flopped down onto his bed. What a mess. This was already a terrible plan before involving Ezran, and now his brother was being stubborn and insisting on throwing himself into danger too. Callum groaned in annoyance and draped an arm over his face. There was still two hours to go before midnight, which was when Rayla would show up.

“We’ve got a problem,” said a thickly accented female voice beside his ear. 

Callum shot up, choking back a yelp. He scrambled backwards on his bed towards the wall, and stared, panicked, at his assailant.

Rayla merely rolled her eyes in response, heaving herself from where she was crouched on the floor beside his bed. True, she had intended to prank the human and startle him, but he was overreacting. “It’s just me, dummy, calm down.”

Callum wheezed in relief. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” he hissed, annoyed.

“Don’t leave yourself so unguarded, then,” she bit back, crossing her arms and cocking one hip to the side. 

“Sure, whatever,” Callum sighed, irritated, as he relaxed and climbed off his perch halfway onto the headboard. “Is it midnight already? I better go wake up my brother.” He glanced at the clock, which only read 10:15, and blinked. “Wait. Why are you so early?”

“That’s what I said before you freaked out - we’ve got a problem. A big one.”

Callum looked up sharply from where he’d moved to pick up his bag and do one more check that he had everything. “Wait. What kind of problem?”

“The Storm Queen’s been put into an enchanted sleep. It just happened, only a little while before now.” 

“What?” Callum was confused, and concerned. “If she’s in a coma or whatever, then what about my parents?”

“Her entire fortress was emptied in a matter of minutes - prisoners, staff, treasure, everything. Only she remains, deep in slumber that no mage can wake her from. Your folks are likely wherever everything else is.”

The human slumped sadly onto his bed, suddenly flooded with despair. “They’re gone?” he asked weakly, sadly. 

Rayla’s heart felt a pang of sadness, which she ignored. “Well, lucky you, making an unbreakable pact with me to get your parents back.” She held up her hand and waggled it back and forth, the end of the white ribbon swishing gently with the movement of her arm. “If I don’t help ya, this’ll snip off my hand.”

Immediately, Callum’s left hand trailed to his right wrist, cradling the invisible ribbon he knew was closed around his own wrist. Rayla rolled her eyes, annoyed she had to explain so very much to the boy. “Don’t worry, you’re fine. It’s there as insurance. Since I gave my help to you freely, you aren’t allowed to make extra bargains or add extra conditions. If you do, it’ll tighten until the pact is fulfilled or, well… _plop_. No hand.”

The idea of losing his dominant hand horrified Callum. “Nothing extra, you got it. Just getting my parents back and the egg returned to the queen.” 

“Right.”

There was an awkward pause, as neither of them knew what to say next. 

“So…” started Callum, scrambling to take in this new information while also aware that there was a girl around his age in his room. “Should… I tell Ezran?”

“Your brother? Why?”

“Uh, he kind of knows about everything. He wanted to come along, but… yeah.”

Rayla’s palm found her face, unbidden. “You’re just fantastic at keeping secrets, aren’t you.”

“He was the one who came in here babbling about how our parents were abducted by aliens!” protested Callum. “I wasn’t going to let him keep thinking something wrong when he already had 90% of the truth figured out on his own.”

“How’d he figure that out?” Rayla queried, confused. The elves assigned to this changeling situation were usually better about not slipping up.

“The guy pretending to be Mom didn’t let him have any candy after dinner. Which, if you knew our mom, is WAY out of character.”

Runaan had slipped up… over candy. Rayla groaned, because that sounded about right. “Ugh, okay, fine. Wake up your brother and meet me downstairs, I’m getting Runaan and Ethari.”

“What? NO! They can’t know we know!”

Rayla glared at him. “We’ve gone from ‘rescue your parents in a very straightforward quest’ to ‘solve a mystery that will require all the help and favors we can get’. I think you’d prefer to have their help. And it’ll be less stressful if the lot of you don’t have to keep pretending.” She exited Callum’s bedroom, leaving him no further quarter for argument. 

In turn, Callum groaned in annoyance and went to get Ezran.

The boys were waiting in the living room when three elves descended the stairs, unglamored. Callum blinked, trying to make certain that he was seeing the white hair and horns on all three without his trick eye. Surely enough, there they were - Rayla, as he’d seen her before, the darker-skinned one with shaggy hair pretending to be his dad, and the thinner, razor-eyed one with hair to his waist that was pretending to be his mom.

“Whoa,” said Ezran, stirring from his half-asleep state at the presence of actual elves in his living room. “I didn’t know you guys had horns!”

The long-haired one cleared his throat and sat down on the couch across from the boys, his partner sitting next to them while Rayla claimed the armchair. “I suppose proper introductions are in order. Rayla has informed us that there is no longer any need for pretense.”

“There’s no need for such formaitly, Runaan,” cajoled the other elf - Ethari, if Callum remembered correctly. He turned, and smiled warmly at the boys. “I am called Ethari, and this is my husband, Runaan. I do apologize for the circumstances being what they are, but I hope that we’ll be able to work together and get through this.”

Callum and Ezran exchanged glances. “Why were our parents taken in the first place?” Ezran asked, frowning slightly as he cradled a half-asleep Bait in his arms. 

“It was punishment for the crime of abducting the Storm Queen’s egg,” said Runaan, his eyes hard and cold. “Justice had to be done.”

“They didn’t know it was an egg,” snapped Callum. “They weren’t even the ones who took it!”  
  
“Regardless, they were the ones who possessed it,” said Ethari, much more gentle than his counterpart. “I’m sure that, had things gone as you planned, returning the Egg to the Queen would have been successful, but…” 

“Until we know who enchanted the Queen and seized your parents, the Egg is safer here,” said Runaan, before his eyes narrowed upon the boys. “... Wherever it is you’ve hidden it.” 

“I still don’t get why it had to be Mom and Dad, though,” argued Callum, pressing the issue. “The guy who gave it to them lives literally next door.”

“Next door? You mean the little old lady with the rose collection?” asked Rayla, glancing to Runaan and Ethari, who only shrugged in confusion.

“What? No, not Mrs. Janko, the other house. Our friends live there, the Fausts,” said Callum. “Viren’s our Dad’s best friend and he just came back from a research trip in Ireland. He’s the one who gave the stone… Egg… to Mom and Dad.”

“There’s no house on the other side of yours,” said Ethari quietly and with a mix of confusion. 

“Huh?” said Ezran, looking out the window at the easily-seen house next door. The lights were all out, save the dim blue flicker of late-night video games coming from the window he knew was Soren’s. “It’s right there.”

Hesitantly, Callum closed his normal eye to look at the unseen world. He expected the house to vanish from sight, but instead was surprised to find that surrounding Viren’s house was a grey haze, which masked the house entirely from view. “Uh…” he turned back around, scratching his head. “Is it possible to like… put an invisibility spell on your house?”

Runaan blinked, and crossed the room to look out the window. He squinted into the dark for some time, and then sighed, giving up. “If he has warded his house, then he has done it well. I only see an empty lot.”

“He must be a rather competent magician if he can conceal it from our sight so effectively,” added Ethari. 

“The guy who actually stole the egg is just running around free and easy because we can’t _see_ him?” said Rayla with an indignant snort. 

Callum held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Look, I don’t want Viren to get abducted by dragons or fairies or whatever, either. I just… you guys want your Queen to get her egg back, and me and Ez want our parents back. So we’re all going to try to work together, right?”

With an irritated sigh, Runaan retreated back to the couch to sit beside Ethari, who curled an arm around him and looked at him with concern. “ _Yes_ , we’ll try and work together. Until that point, I believe that means Ethari and I are effectively your guardians.”

Ezran sat up and grinned, an idea dawning upon him. “Does this mean you’re our fairy godfathers?”

The glare Runaan gave him could have melted stone, but Ethari simply laughed. “I suppose it does,” he said lightly,and Runaan’s glare pivoted to him. “Oh, don’t give me that grumpy face, you signed up for this too.” Ethari patted Runaan’s arm and smiled at the boys. “Of course, in public we still need to pretend to be Harrow and Sarai, at least for the time being.”

The brothers exchanged glances, frowning slightly. Finally, they looked back to the elves. “Well, if we gotta…” said Ezran, reluctant.

“We aren’t trying to replace your parents, boys,” said Ethari, smiling gently. “But someone DOES have to live their lives, if you don’t want to be shunted into an adoption system or otherwise.”

“You’re going to have to be pretty good actors to convince people like our Aunt,” said Callum, withholding the fact that he knew their Aunt and her wife would adopt them in a heartbeat. “Do you even know sign language?”

It was Runaan and Ethari’s turn to glance at each other, somewhat uncertain of what to explain to the boys. “When we were assigned the roles of changelings for your parents, a magical link was created,” Runaan explained. “I am still myself, but if I focus on that link I know almost everything your mother would know.”

“Except where the candy’s hidden,” muttered Ezran, still bitter about missing dessert.

“How come you don’t know where they are, if you have this link?” asked Callum.

“It’s not a direct connection,” said Ethari. “Think of it more like…” he groped around mentally for the right metaphor, and brightened. “When you make a copy of a computer file, it still has all the data of the original, but wouldn’t necessarily affect the other files, right?” He tapped the side of his head. “It’s like a copy of Harrow, in here.”

Callum and Ezran recoiled, a bit disgusted. Ezran recovered quickly, however, another question bubbling up to the surface of his mind. “Wait, elves know about computers?”

“What? Of course we do,” retorted Rayla. “They’re everywhere, why wouldn’t we?”

“Oh, it’s just… in all the stories, elves live in the forest and are super close to nature. Computers aren’t very magical.”

“Plus, y’know, iron,” added Callum.

“Ah,” replied Ethari. “You believed that the people on our side still remain at a bronze-age level of technology.”

“Humans really should update their stories of elves,” said Runaan with a huff. “Just because we were relegated to the children’s bookshelf 300 years ago doesn’t mean our culture and technology remained stagnant.”

“Not to mention that not all people on the other side have the issues with iron your folk tales speak of. Elves have no such allergy that I’m aware of.” Ethari smiled. “In fact, I’m a smith, when not on duty.”

“Well,” said Runaan, standing. “I am glad we are all on the same page. However, it’s become quite late. Ethari has to be at the TV station in a few hours, and the three of you have school, so off to bed with the lot of you.”

“Wait, three?” said Callum.

“Oh yeah, should’ve mentioned,” replied Rayla, standing and stretching, before heading to the door of the downstairs guest bedroom. “I wasn’t about to let you bumble through your daily lives without me there to help you look for clues. I’m going to school with you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ughhhhh this one was a bitch to write. Between COVID sucking out all my creative drive for like a month and trying to figure out how to bridge the first part to the next one after I'd effectively written myself into a corner, this one was tough. Hope you liked it!
> 
> Also, yes, if you read modern accounts of the fae, they aren't luddites. Check out fairyist.com for a ton of modern fairy sightings and encounters.


	6. Interlude 1: The Magician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the night of the storm, Viren spends some time with the real reason he went to Ireland: an ornate, antique mirror.

To the average visitor to the Faust residence, Viren’s large, wood-paneled study would’ve seemed normal if not a bit sparse on the furniture. True, the shelves were wall-to-wall bookcases, and there remained a fine oak desk tucked into one corner of the room, but the majority of the space was open. 

“I often bring home large antiques for study,” explained Viren, whenever asked, “and I don’t want some of the more… macabre natures of these objects to upset my children, so I keep them in my study. When they’re not in the University’s archives, of course.”

This was, of course, omitting the fact that a lot of said antiques did later end up integrated into the decor of the rest of the house (to Soren’s dismay and Claudia’s delight), and it also glossed over some of the details that would’ve caught the eye of someone a little more versed in… well, in the occult.

To anyone with a sharp eye for strange symbols, the Faust residence’s decor would’ve given the strong impression that Viren was some kind of black magician.

Which wasn’t inaccurate, but it wasn’t a fact he advertised. You talk about binding demons in mixed company _one time_ and suddenly the other parents at the PTA meeting think you worship the devil and need pamphlets and invitations to Sunday church services on your doorstep. No, Viren didn’t need that kind of botheration in his life. 

Dinner with the Martin-Lee family had gone successfully, and his friends had seemed pleased with their gifts. Now, home and having decompressed, Viren pulled the black robe, lined in red silk, around him tightly and cinched the belt, before jiggling the handle on his door to make sure it was locked. It was almost midnight, and he knew his children were in bed (or at least, remaining in their rooms and occupied, if the sound of video games coming from Soren’s room was any indication.) Not that he would’ve minded their presence - after all, Claudia had taken a shine to witchcraft, even if it wasn’t quite the path or style Viren preferred. And Soren, while disinterested in magic in general, didn’t bring the kind of negativity or skepticism that would’ve deflated any ongoing ritual. However, an interruption in the work he was about to do, or a breaking of the circle, would not have been advisable. And so, for good measure, he opened the door and hung the old sign Soren had made for him years ago, on the doorknob.

It read, “Don’t come in! Dad’s being a wizard!” and contained a crude drawing of himself wearing a blue hat and robe festooned with stars. Viren smiled at the sign, and turned to close and lock the door once again. Then, with resolve, he flipped up the hood of the robe and strode to the edge of the room. He took a grounding breath, and knelt to roll up the rug, revealing faded chalk lines drawn on the wooden veneers of the floor. 

With deliberate, practice strokes, he redrew the circle and various symbols on the floor, taking care to ensure the lines were smooth and fully connected. With the circle complete, he stood and dusted off his hands, and then busied himself setting up the ritual space. A small table in the center, upon which he carefully laid out his tools - a knife, a golden disk, a wand of pale wood, some oils and herbs, and a small censer of incense. He then went to another corner of his office, and, after wiping his sweaty palms on his knees, hefted up a large antique mirror, and moved it inside the circle. 

He caught his breath, checked to make sure the lines on the floor weren’t scuffed, and then carefully drew a triangle around the mirror. Satisfied, Viren then retrieved one more item of furniture - an oak lectern - and a heavy leather-bound grimoire, which bore the title “The Writings of Viard the Magus” in silver embossed letters.

Setting the lectern and book down next to the table, he then positioned himself in the center of the circle. Then, with a deep breath, he lifted the knife, and set to work. 

After the standard opening actions of any ritual he performed in this space (ground, center, banish), and with the circle fully cast and warded, Viren gently flipped past various spells and summonable entities, to where a ribbon held his place in the book. He let his fingers ghost delicately over the title - _To Summon Aaravos, Fairy King of the Stars_. 

He’d found the book a little more than three years ago, at a back-alley books and antiquities store in Prague. It was a little-known grimoire, fabled in occultist circles as the last work of an obscure medieval magician. Viren had been astonished at his luck, and paid quite a hefty sum for the book. He’d told himself it was for translation and preservation purposes - folklore and folk practice was his specialty, after all - but once the book was in his hands, he couldn’t resist taking a _few_ of the spells and summonings within for a test drive. And, after a handful of disappointing workings, he’d discovered Aaravos.

At first, he could only perceive the spirit as an impression, a faint haze bound within the triangle by sigils and incantations. But something compelled him to repeat the summons, and soon the baritone thrum in the back of his mind, the sign of the spirit’s presence, asking him _speak, so that I might hear you_ became familiar. 

Viren wasn’t a fool - he’d summoned many unfamiliar spirits before, and wasn’t the kind of casually make deals with them at first, or even second or third, brush. But as he worked with Aaravos, summoning him at first for help with a translation or a tricky political situation at the university, he found that Aaravos was… surprisingly helpful, for a Fairy King. He was, of course, bound in the triangle, but complied happily with Viren’s requests. 

Only once had Aaravos made a request for an offering, and it had been a doozy. He had shown Viren a specific mirror in a specific shop in a specific Irish town, and as soon as Viren had the opportunity to visit the Emerald Isle, he took it, and tracked the mirror down.

It now sat within the summoning triangle. 

Viren took a deep breath, and dabbed a small bit of oil onto his forehead, and then his tools. He lifted the knife and held it before his heart, before extending his arm forward, and reading the spell. “I summon thee, o Aaravos…”

The words and syllables fell from his lips with practiced ease, and Viren felt himself sinking into trance. The surface of the mirror began to shimmer, and by the time he completed the incantation, it was as though the mirror was a window into another room. And, standing in the mirror’s frame, was a man.

Or rather, what seemed to be an elf. His skin was dark blue and festooned with motes of light, like the night sky was painted onto his skin. Set deep within black eyes were two golden irises, which peeked out behind snow white bangs. Purple branch-like horns crowned his head, and three large stars glinted upon each cheek. The being was beautiful, and smiled warmly through the glass at Viren.

“Speak, so I might hear you,” said the being in a familiar baritone - one Viren could hear with his ears, this time. 

Viren blinked, lowering the dagger but not releasing his grip on the disk, which bore the sigil of Aaravos and was a crucial part in making sure the spirit didn’t leave the protective wardings. “...Aaravos?” he asked, after a while, awed.

“The same. Hello again,” said the elf, with a smirk and half a bow. “I see you found my mirror.”

“I… yes.” Viren cleared his throat and regained his composure. 

“Then how may I serve you?” Aaravos’s voice, now that Viren could actually _hear_ it instead of “hearing” it in his mind’s ear, was seductive and doing things to Viren’s body. He mentally filed away the sound for later and squared his shoulders.

“I seek knowledge,” said Viren, firmly. 

Aaravos leaned against the frame of the mirror, the diaphanous cloak around his shoulders revealing the smallest peek of his pectorals. “Is that all?”

Viren had practiced what he was going to say next. After all, he knew that making a deal with a purported fairy king would entail careful semantics, lest his words be used against him, or the fairy find some way to screw him over that was technically accurate according to the letter. “I seek and desire knowledge, specifically knowledge of an arcane nature, that will enable me to learn the secrets of the inner workings of the universe. This knowledge must be able to grant me magical power, and be to my benefit and not my detriment or harm.”

The elf in the mirror looked upwards, thinking. “It sounds as though you desire power more than knowledge.”

“Only the power which will grant me more knowledge,” said Viren. “I don’t need a kingdom or the ability to shoot fireballs out of my hands. I just want to _know_.”

“Are you certain about the fireballs?” teased Aaravos with a smirk.

“Only if you feel that such thaumaturgical defiance of the laws of physics is crucial to learning about the underpinnings of magical theory.”

“I think I can make some arrangements, yes,” said Aaravos, standing fully upright. “For one small favor, down the road.”

“Terms up front or not at all,” said Viren, his gaze hardening. “I will not be ritually beholden to some mystery clause.”

“Smart man,” he replied. “What I require is my freedom.”

Viren was taken somewhat aback. “I’m no fool to free any kind of spirit from my summoning circle,” he said, a note of displeasure in his tone. 

Aaravos chuckled in reply. “No, no, of course not. Not from your workings, not that sort of freedom. I require freedom from _here_.” He gestured around to the far away room he stood within, on the other side of the mirror. “This place is my prison, and has been so for time longer than I can count. Work towards my freedom, and I shall grant you that which you desire.”

Viren considered the offer. He had no idea what freeing Aaravos would entail, nor was he keen to free a being without knowing what the terms of his imprisonment were, or why he was imprisoned to begin with. “Before I agree to your terms, I shall need some time to consider. Tell me what the first step of freeing you entails, so I may make an informed decision about whether or not I can uphold my end of the bargain.”

“But of course,” said Aaravos, cooly. “The first thing you will need to do is locate where my prison is. I myself do not know precisely where it is, but I can tell you this. It is something which exists in both your world and mine. It is small, yet large, cold, yet warm, and solid, liquid and gas.” 

“I see,” said Viren. “Very well. I shall consider your offer and return in three day’s time with my answer.”

“I do so look forward to our next meeting,” said Aaravos, with a regal bow. “Until next time,” he said.

“Indeed.” Viren held aloft his dagger once more, and began to chant the closing incantation. The image of Aaravos faded from view, and then, with the sibilant pop of mundane reality reasserting itself, the mirror showed Viren nothing more than his own reflection once more. He closed the ritual down, and reopened his circle. 

With a tired grunt, Viren flopped down into his office chair, and pulled the tupperware of leftover jelly tarts Harrow had sent home with him closer. The tarts were still warm, and he needed something solid in his belly after such an astonishingly clear ritual. A physical, visual and audible manifestation of a summoning! In all his years of practicing, he’d never had such a successful rite. He munched thoughtfully while jotting down his notes, taking care to write out the clue Aaravos had given him and making a few lists of what to follow up on. 

A sharp thundercrack started Viren out of his thoughts, and he glanced down at the clock. It was almost 2 am, and he DID have a lecture to get to at 10 am. He doffed his robe and hung it in the small cupboard he kept his ritual tools in, taking care to put away his other tools, the lectern, and the book. Then, he dragged the mirror back to it’s corner (perhaps he and Soren would do a father/son project and put wheels on the damn thing), and covered it with a heavy black cloth. Lastly, he unrolled the rug, hiding the circle from prying eyes.

Warily, Viren realized that he had put his foot into something much, much larger than he intended. But his curiosity was piqued now, and for the first time in years he felt that exhilarating thrill of the unknown. One way or the other, he’d solve Aaravos’s riddle and find the knowledge he sought. 

With a yawn, Viren retired to bed, the gears of his mind already ticking away at where he might begin.


	7. A Morning Jog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Runaan and Callum get to know each other a little better.

“Callum, wake up. It is morning.” 

At the sound of the clipped, cultured voice, Callum groaned and rolled over. Clearly he was still having some kind of dream about wizards or whatever, and the elven arms master in his dream was now talking to him.

“Get up, Callum,” the voice commanded. “It will be sunrise soon and it is unwise to spend all day laying about in bed.”

“Mmfgghfmph,” was Callum’s erudite rebuttal.

The voice sighed in annoyance. “Humans…” it muttered, and suddenly Callum’s mattress upended itself and he found himself sprawled on the floor, very awake. After scrambling about in the spilled bedsheets, trying to get his bearings now that he was definitely (and rudely) awake, Callum groped for his phone on the bedside table.

5:00 am.

He glared sharply up at his assailant - the scowling, pointier elf husband that was posing as his mom, now lowering the mattress back into the bedframe. Well, he wasn’t currently pretending to be Sarai. After the previous night’s meeting, it was agreed that while they were in the house and no visitors were present, Runaan and Ethari were welcome to go about unglamoured, both for their sake and the sake of Callum and Ezran. 

Runaan was wearing what looked like a track suit, and he deposited a bundle of clothing on top of Callum’s dresser.

“Your cold-weather gym clothes have been laundered. I expect you to join Rayla and I for a brief morning jog.”

“It’s five in the morning. The sun’s not even up,” Callum whined, peevish at his rude awakening and also the demand that he  _ exercise _ so early.

“Yes. An excellent time to awaken the body and get the blood flowing. Now, up with you, we depart in ten minutes’ time.” Runaan departed with a flick of his long white hair.

Too flabbergasted to protest further, Callum stumbled towards the dresser and retrieved his gym clothes, plus a pair of clean underwear and some socks. He made a brief detour to the bathroom to relieve himself first, and shrugged on his clothing. Did he even have running shoes? There was a pair of gym shoes his mom bought him at the beginning of the year SOMEWHERE in the back of the mud room, he guessed, but he’d worn them maybe twice. 

Ugh. 

He plodded downstairs, where Runaan and Rayla were doing stretches while they waited for him. It was a bit like watching them dance, the two elves demonstrating agility he’d only seen on YouTube. 

“Mornin’, sleepy,” greeted Rayla as she extended her leg behind herself, bringing her foot level with her head while she clutched her ankle. 

“Why am I not sleeping right now?” said Callum, petulant. 

“I’m not about to let some untrained, unprepared human child run off into peril,” explained Runaan as he too stretched his leg further than Callum had ever seen an adult man stretch. “Especially not one whose safety I’m responsible for.”

“Yeah, still not seeing why I have to wake up at 5 to go running.”

“Perhaps I was unclear.” Runaan lowered his leg and stood full height, staring Callum down with intense sea-green eyes. “Either you train with Rayla and I, or I take matters into my own hands, take the egg from Ezran’s room, and deliver it to the Queen myself.” At Callum’s dumbfounded stare, Runaan nodded curtly. “As I thought. I don’t expect you to do exactly what Rayla and I do, but try to follow along with our movements.”

Frowning, Callum sat down on the floor and extended a leg to the side as they did, grasping desperately for his foot and barely reaching his upper shin. The elves, of course, had both hands wrapped around their heels and their foreheads pressed to their knees. “How’d you know Ez has the egg?” he asked, wheezing as he tried to sink further into the stretch.

“Don’t over-extend yourself and pull a muscle,” chided Runaan, standing to correct Callum’s posture. “As for the egg it was simple. There’s a reptile enclosure in Ezran’s room.”

“Oh.”

The three of them spent another fifteen minutes or so stretching in silence, Runaan occasionally correcting Callum’s positioning so he didn’t hurt himself or overdo it. And then, stretching done, Runaan led them outside. As he stepped through the door, his long white hair darkened to a sandy brown and shortened, and horns and purple markings disappeared. Rayla too returned to the glamour he’d originally seen her in. 

“So how am I gonna explain this to any of my friends if they spot me?” he asked. 

“You’ll have to think of something,” replied Runaan airily. “I don’t expect you to keep up, Callum, but the route is left at Maple St, left at Eveneer Drive, left Breachway Avenue, and left again onto your own street, to close the loop.”

Callum gaped at him. “That’s like five miles!”

“Indeed. Better get some pep in your step if you wish to get to school on time. I’ll double back to check on you occasionally.” And at that, he and Rayla set off at a very brisk pace.

Callum stared at them, running off like gazelles or olympians or…  _ something _ , and grumbled. “This better be worth it,” he growled, and set off at his own (much slower) pace.

An hour and a half later, he staggered up the driveway, ready to collapse. Runaan had looped back to him several times throughout the course of the jog, barking at him to run faster and push himself like some kind of horrible British drill sergeant. But he was finally,  _ finally  _ done with the grueling exercise, and so very ready to collapse onto the couch with the biggest glass of water he could muster.

When he stumbled inside, Runaan handed him a small glass of water. “Drink it slowly,” commanded the elf as Callum took it, ready to chug it down. “If you drink water too quickly after such exertion, it will upset your stomach.”

Callum tried to slow his pace, but he still gulped the meager glass greedily and panted “More,” wiping his sweaty forehead on the arm of his sleeve. Runaan stepped aside, and permitted Callum into the kitchen, where he turned on the tap and resisted the temptation to stick his mouth directly under the faucet.

“I’m impressed,” drawled Rayla, leaning against the door. “I bet Runaan you wouldn’t make it more than halfway before you collapsed or gave up.”

He glowered at her. “Give me some credit,” he said, still panting some. “I’m not a jock, but I’m not _ totally _ out of shape.”

“No, but you  _ are _ human, and that was a pretty tough pace Runaan was setting.” She smirked. “If you thought this was bad, wait until he starts you on drills.”

“Ughhhhh,” was Callum’s only reply as he collapsed forward, folding his entire upper body onto the counter in front of him. 

“Right,” said Runaan, entering the kitchen and looking fresh as a daisy. “Time for you two to get ready for school. Breakfast will be ready in an hour.”

“Don’t  _ you _ have to get ready for work?” asked Callum, glancing over to Runaan, who was slicing fruit. 

“Your mother’s alarm goes off at precisely 6:37, which she ignores until the second one goes off at 7:10. She ignores that one as well, and gets up at 7:45, whereupon she hastily gets up, dresses, does her hair, and runs out the door, doing her makeup during traffic jams on her commute, and arrives at her office a few minutes after 9 am. Since my ‘getting ready’ process is a mere snap of the fingers, as long as I am exiting the house by 8 am no one will spot a discrepancy in her routines.”

“Weird that you just…  _ know _ that.”

“I  _ also _ know that you tend to take an inordinately long time in the shower and use up all of the hot water, so perhaps it is in your best interest to get your extended bathing time started, is it not?”

With deliberate, exaggerated annoyance, Callum slid off the counter and turned towards the stairs, groaning the entire time as his muscles throbbed.

By the time he had finished showering and getting dressed (and laying on his bed looking at his phone for 45 minutes), Runaan had left for Sarai’s job. Rayla was at the table, finishing up her bowl of fruit salad and yogurt, while Ezran enjoyed his regular bowl of cereal and bananas. Rayla nudged a bowl of fruit towards Callum. 

“I usually have cereal,” he whined. 

“You’re gonna want something a bit more wholesome than…” Rayla picked up Ezran’s cereal box and read the brand name. “Choco Crunch Puffs.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Even if it says it’s fortified with minerals, it’s no substitute for real food.”

“It tastes good,” said Ezran, looking at her with wide eyes. “And has all the minerals a growing boy like me needs! Plus, I’m also eating a banana.”

“Yeah, but Runaan’s not trying to kill you with morning workouts,” replied Rayla warmly, before giving Callum a flat stare. “You’re gonna feel like hot garbage in two hours if you don’t eat something more filling and whole than air-filled reconstituted wheat powder. Besides, Runaan left you some eggs, too. They’re in the oven to keep warm.”

Eggs, Callum decided, at least wasn’t  _ terrible _ for a breakfast that included yogurt. He retrieved his eggs, and his bowl of fruit and yogurt, and dug in, suddenly realizing how utterly  _ starving _ he was.

“Are you walking me to school, Rayla?” asked Ezran, eager to get to know the newest addition to their household. 

“Maybe some other time, but for my first day of school I have to pretend like I don’t know ya. Ethari’s coming home after the broadcast to pick me up and enroll me in your school, so I won’t be showing up until midday.”

“Won’t my dad showing up to enroll you blow the whole ‘you don’t know us’ thing?” said Callum. 

“Nah, Ethari’s gonna show up as himself - well, in human glamour, of course,” said Rayla. 

Callum rubbed his face. “There’s a lot of cover stories to keep track of, all of a sudden.”

“S’not that many.” Rayla cleared her empty bowl and spoon from the table and went to the sink to rinse her dishes. “As far as anyone else is concerned, you boys are living a totally normal life at home. You leave my cover story up to me.”

“Guess that means I’m walking you to school, Ez. C’mon, I’ll finish up my breakfast, you get your homework together, and we’ll head out.”


	8. The New Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claudia gets a new student in her history class.

At 10:30, Claudia entered her 4th period history class and sat in her customary seat towards the back. Thursday was even-numbered block day, which meant an entire 90 minutes of her favorite subject in school, Biology, after lunch. Even better,  _ her _ class was the one that had all opted-in for the yearly fetal pig dissection unit, and she was excited to get her hands dirty. Reading about anatomy was one thing - seeing it up close was an entire other one. 

Yeah, it was sad and the tiny pig was cute, but it was already dead and Claudia wasn’t like,  _ sadistic _ about it, despite what the rumours about “Creepy Claudia” said about her. She just found biology fascinating, including the icky parts. 

She just had to slog through 90 minutes of World History first. Or, as she preferred to call it, Colonialism 101. Last night’s chapter had been about ( _ ugh) _ the Dutch East India Company and European expansion into Asia. She’d skimmed it enough to ace the pop quiz Mr. Fen was undoubtedly going to be giving them, and then had spent her time reading something  _ much _ more engaging. True, it was one of her dad’s dusty academic tomes, but  _ The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries _ was a much more interesting read. She’d already flagged several pages to discuss with Callum over lunch, regarding his elf problem. 

She had WANTED to discuss it with him during their walk to school, but she’d missed her alarm and had sent Callum on to walk to school with Ez. Had she remembered to put on deodorant this morning? She gave her armpit a surreptitious sniff and frowned. Well, good thing she kept some in her locker.

“Claudia?” said Mr. Fen, approaching her desk. “Could you please go down to the main office for me? We have a new student joining us today and I thought it would be nicer for her to make her way here with a fellow student.” He smiled tightly and expectantly. 

“Uh, sure,” she replied hesitantly, hefting her backpack up and heading for the door. Hopefully this meant she wouldn’t have to take the stupid pop quiz. 

As she made her way through the halls (the history wing was at the back of the school building, a solid five minute trek to the front office), she mulled over what she’d read the night before about the Fair Folk. She’d made several small iron charms out of nails, salt and a bit of string she’d blessed with moon water. One was in her pocket now, the others at the bottom of her bag waiting for when she could either give them to Callum or stealthily plant them on him. He’d thank her later. 

She rounded the corner of the front hallway and stopped dead in her tracks. 

There was a pale, blonde girl in some seriously outdated fashion standing next to a dark-skinned man with shaggy grey hair pulled into a messy man-bun. They were talking quietly and didn’t seem to notice her. Claudia slowly extracted her phone from her pocket, and pretended to be casually checking a text. She opened her photos and looked at the drawings Callum had sent her the night before. 

_ Son of a bitch _ .

“Ms. Faust,” scolded the front desk aide, scowling. “Language!”

Oops, she’d said that aloud. The two newcomers were now looking at her with concern and confusion. She laughed nervously and gave them a tight smile before turning to the aide. “Mr. Fen sent me up here to show a new student to his class?”

“Oh, of course!” The aide, whose name Claudia never bothered to remember, gestured toward the pair of newcomers. “This is Rayla Kelly. Her family just moved here from Scotland!”

_ Uh-huh. If by Scotland you mean Elfhame, sure, _ Claudia thought to herself. But, she figured, time to put those acting skills to use. She put on a cheerful grin and beamed at Rayla. 

“Wow, Scotland! That’s pretty far away from Illinois,” she said, extending a hand to the other girl. “I’m Claudia. Welcome to Katolis High!”

“Thanks,” said Rayla, in the thickest Scottish accent Claudia had ever heard. “I’m Rayla, as you uh… know, and this is my dad, Ethaaaaaaa-- Ethan.” She smiled awkwardly and took Claudia’s hand, shaking it stiffly. 

“Pleased to meet you both,” said Claudia, smiling at ‘Ethan’. There was no way his name was actually Ethan.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” said ‘Ethan,’ nodding his head towards Claudia. He too spoke with a thick burr. He turned to Rayla, who was still awkwardly shaking Claudia’s hand. (Claudia took the distraction to quietly withdraw from the handshake). “Rayla, I must return to work now, but do have a good day in school.”

“Yeah, sure! You too, Ethar-- um, Ethan!” Rayla waved at him, watching him leave, and then turned to Claudia. “So… class?”

As Claudia escorted Rayla down the hall back to history class, they walked for a moment in silence. Normally Claudia would’ve carried the conversation easily, but all the questions crashing around in her head were definitely ones she couldn’t ask. She wasn’t about to blurt out that she knew Rayla was secretly an elf (which eliminated questions about what she was doing there, what she wanted from the school, why she was stalking Callum, and if she knew 2005 wanted its boot cut jeans back), but she couldn’t actually think of any questions that weren’t penetratingly personal. 

“So are all huuu-  _ Americans _ this quiet when they meet new people?” said Rayla, breaking the silence.

“Huh? Oh, no, just thinking, sorry,” said Claudia. “Trying not to ask a bunch of questions that are way too awkward for a first meeting.”

Rayla laughed, surprised. “Like what?”

“Why did you call your dad by his first name?” Claudia blurted, and then mentally kicked herself for going straight to way-too-awkward. At least it wasn’t the even-more-awkward questions about Rayla’s  _ species _ .

“Oh, he’s my foster dad,” said Rayla. “My parents disappeared when I was a wee thing, so he and his husband adopted me.”

That surprised Claudia. “Husband?”

Rayla scowled. “I thought America had gotten better about that sort of thing.”

“They have! I’m soooo sorry, oh my gosh. I just didn’t expect it. It’s cool! I’m bi myself, actually and--” Claudia snapped her mouth closed, blushing. She was  _ not _ usually this awkward around new people.

“Well if you’re asking me out, that’s a weird way to do it,” teased Rayla with a grin. 

Claudia cleared her throat, trying to erase the awkward. “So, uh… what brings you to Katolis?”

“My dads’ work. Runaan, my other dad, he’s a diplomat.” 

“Oh, cool,” said Claudia, filing that information away for later. It was a funny way to put “probably posing as Callum’s mom,” but keeping tabs on the web of lies this Rayla was spinning was useful information. “My dad’s an anthropology professor over at Northwestern.”

To Claudia’s relief, they had finally reached the front door of Mr. Fen’s classroom. “Welp, we’re here! Good old World History.”

Rayla snorted. “Can’t wait to learn all about Colonialism from colonizers.”

At this, Claudia beamed. “I call it Colonialism 101! It’s such a bullshit class.”

“Looks like we’re getting through it together, then,” said Rayla dryly. “Alright, lets get it over with.”

Claudia opened the door and gestured Rayla forward. Elven spy or not, Rayla was pretty cool. 

As Mr. Fen introduced her to the class and the class asked annoying questions about Scotland, Rayla’s old school, etc, Claudia pulled out her phone and opened her chat with Callum.

[MerryHexmas]: Ur elf girl is in my history class   
[IsThatAnime]: Uh… what?   
[MerryHexmas]: The elf from your living room? Remember?  
[IsThatAnime]: Oh. Yeah, sorry about that. I had a weird dream and kind of freaked out.    
[MerryHexmas]: Srsly? Youre acting like it didn’t happen?  
[MerryHexmas]: Fuck off, Callum, she’s right here. It’s the same girl from your drawing.   
[IsThatAnime]: …   
[MerryHexmas]:  _ sent elfgirl.jpg _ _  
_ [MerryHexmas]:  _ sent img2566.jpg  
_ [MerryHexmas]: I’m not stupid Callum, that’s totally the same person.   
[MerryHexmas]: DONT LEAVE ME ON READ, CALLUM, YOU BETTER EXPLAIN THIS

  
With a huff, Claudia turned off her phone and sat back in her seat. Good thing lunch was after this class. She had  _ questions _ , and Callum was going to answer whether he liked it or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that is some Raydia hinting in there and no I dont intend this to be a Raydia fic beyond some flirting. I do think Claudia and Rayla could have an interesting dynamic outside of canon (where Claudia very clearly views Rayla and magical creatures in general as objects, so that's uhhh not a healthy dynamic). In a universe where Claudia isn't that way, though, perhaps they can be friends!


	9. A Test

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claudia confronts Callum and Rayla meets Soren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that sure was a hiatus!
> 
> I needed to figure out how to bridge this chapter and drive the story forward, and I finally got enough spoons to write! So here ya go, hope you enjoy, and thanks for all your patience waiting for me to update the heckin' story!

What many humans, and definitely Viren, seemed to be unable to grasp was the ineffable, fluid nature of his kind. 

Did they have physical bodies? Of course they did, folklore was rife with tales of physical interactions with the good people. But also no, not bodies like the humans had, for they could be invisible, intangible, ethereal at a moment’s notice.

Was the food over there safe to eat? Yes and no, it depended on who was serving it. 

So many questions, and so much desire for a concrete answer when there wasn’t one. The uncertainty vexed most humans, and it really seemed to bother Viren most of all. He liked absolutes.

Teasing him was one of Aaravos’s favorite pastimes. 

Viren always wanted answers. He didn’t often want to work for those answers, which was a pity, but watching his stern expression twitch in frustration at the many non-answers never ceased to delight the star-speckled elf. Viren was even more fun than the magician who had created that silly summoning ritual Viren was currently using to communicate with him. Both of them had been so serious, binding the malevolent spirits of the earth and powers of the elements to their whim with chanting and symbols and gestures and toys. They seemed to be under the impression that one such as Aaravos could be called and commanded with a mere knife and a triangle drawn upon the ground. It was charming, so he played along.

Really, all Viren would have had to do was  _ ask _ , but sometimes humans needed the rituals and trappings to trick their stubborn, sticky, limited minds into seeing beyond. Perhaps that’s why children had an easier time of it - they hadn’t been bogged down by the foolish trappings of the adult humans’ world, trained to eschew fantasy and liminality for only what they could sense with their eyes, ears and hands. 

Yes, Aaravos was very fond of humans, and Viren was currently his favorite. The fool would never understand what an honor it was to be granted his favor (and to those who knew of Aaravos and the power he held, how dangerous that favor could be), but that was part of the fun.

Besides, Viren was  _ useful _ .

The tiffs and spats of Royalty were common, and long ago Aaravos had offended one more powerful than he - Avizandum, the Thunder King. The retaliation had been extreme, and Avizandum had imprisoned Aaravos in a dimension of mirrors and mazes, trapping him somewhere that not even he and his immense knowledge could escape. For centuries he had languished there, intangibly watching the mortals through the glass windows into their world, unseen but seeing. 

And then, a tug at the hem of his robe, a magical pull - “I summon thee, O Aaravos…”

Well, it would’ve been rude not to answer, no? And what luck that the person calling was Viren.

Viren, whose thirst for knowledge and power made him easier to play than a dime store kazoo. 

Of course, it wasn’t as though Avizandum didn’t keep a watchful eye on his prison. The mirror was one portal through which Aaravos could be seen, and it was kept under watchful eye in that Antique store. How Viren had weaseled it away from the shopkeeper was quite the intriguing mystery, and even more interesting was what on earth had possessed Viren to take the King’s unborn child as well? 

It stood to reason that Viren hadn’t the faintest idea what a mess he’d caused. But no matter. The two humans blamed and taken for the abduction were now in Aaravos’s care, and would be returned when Viren had freed him. After all, Aaravos had sensed the longing in Viren’s heart for his friend and his lovely wife, and if he succeeded in his task then Aaravos would certainly reward his vassal for his loyalty. 

They slumbered now, brought to his lair by one of the remaining loyalists hiding in Avizandum’s kingdom. Avizandum himself was busy attempting to undo the damage that humankind had done to their world, trying to tip the scales however he could to a less catastrophic outcome. And Avizandum’s queen had let her guard down, foolishly, allowing him to put her to sleep. 

The only loose end, in Aaravos’s view, were the children of Viren and his neighbors. 

Viren’s daughter was clever. His son was strong, and the two boys were unknown factors. He sensed great potential in them, but that potential was possibly dangerous, if they ever got it into their heads to oppose him. Their new elf friend was likely ignorant of the situation, and therefore risky.

Aaravos gazed through the reflection of the cafeteria window, tapped his chin in thought, and smiled.

Perhaps… a test was in order.

The cafeteria was abuzz with its usual chatter as friends congregated around their usual tables, and frenemies sniped barbed praise at each other. 

Callum was oblivious to it all. Usually this would be because he was too engrossed in his sketchbook to pay much heed to anything, but today it was because he was fast asleep. A half-eaten sandwich dangled from one hand, the other being used to prop his chin up as he ever-so-slowly leaned to the side, seconds away from falling off his chair.

A sharp slam on the table jerked him out of sleep, and he awoke with a startled snort, dropping his sandwich. “Aw man,” he said sadly, his shoulders sagging as he looked at the mayonnaise-splattered tile by his feet. 

He looked up sulkily at his assailant, to see Claudia had set her backpack down on the table rather more sharply than usual. She was ignoring him now as she fished out her lunch from between the books and papers and god-knew-what-else crammed in there. She finally extracted a tupperware full of salad and a rubber vial of dressing, and proceeded to prepare her food without saying a word to Callum.

“Uh, hello to you too,” he said sourly, bending down to pick up his destroyed sandwich. Five second rule nothing, it had fallen  _ apart _ when it landed. He wiped the mayonnaise off his hand and peeked into the paper bag to see what else Runaan had packed him. He extracted a bag of almonds, pleased, until he saw the note. “You need more whole protein in your diet” was written on the bag in sharpie. 

Great. His mother’s changeling was not only his personal running coach, but also apparently his  _ nutritionist _ . Sulkily, he ate an almond. 

Claudia was still ignoring him.

Callum sighed in annoyance. “Okay, you’re ignoring me, which means you’re mad.”

Claudia’s gaze turned to him, and she blinked at him coolly before shoving another bite of salad into her mouth and chewing slowly. 

“Is this about the new girl in your class?”

Claudia continued chewing, and took a sip of water from her canteen bottle, still staring holes into Callum. She wasn’t letting him off the hook that easily. She  _ knew _ what Rayla was, and she knew that Callum knew, and she knew that Callum knew that she knew. 

Speaking of whom…

“Uh, hey, Claudia, was it? D’you mind if I sit here? I don’t really know anyone else…”

Claudia immediately dropped the ignoring act and smiled sunnily at Rayla. “Sure!” she said brightly, scooting over and moving her backpack to make way for Rayla, before patting the seat next to her. Rayla sat down, sneaking a glance at Callum who was staring wide-eyed at her, and flicked a glance over to Claudia. 

“Oh, Rayla, have you met Callum?” Claudia asked, voice dripping with sweetness. She was doing it on purpose, Callum knew she was doing it to get at him. 

For her part, Rayla froze and glanced at Callum, before sitting down and awkwardly shrugging. “We met briefly. At, uhh…”

“A fundraiser!” Callum supplied quickly. “This weekend, for the station. Mom and dad dragged me to it.”

Claudia frowned at Callum and folded her arms across her chest, thoroughly done playing around. “No they didn’t. You spent the entirety of this weekend sending me funny TikToks and playing video games.”

“It was between those.”

“We played Among Us for like six hours! And then Soren bitched for the rest of the night about how good of an imposter Ez is and how he couldn’t vote him out because he’s too pure.”

“Hang on, am I missing something here?” interjected Rayla, utterly lost at the sharp turn the conversation has taken.

“Oh, you didn’t tell her either?” snapped Claudia. 

“Tell me what?” asked Rayla, turning to Callum and narrowing her eyes. 

“Hey guys!” interrupted a cheerful voice, punctuated by the sharp slap of a tray piled high with warm food hitting the table. The fourth chair squeaked against the floor as Soren pulled it out and spun it around, sitting backwards in it. “Check it out, the lunch lady gave me extra garlic bread today!” He held out the bread as though to show Claudia, and then glanced around the table, finally catching onto the tense atmosphere. 

He shrugged and took a bite of bread, speaking with his mouth full. “Did I interrupt something?”

Claudia sighed angrily, putting her words together carefully so that she could express why she was mad and clue Rayla in without letting the secrets slip. It wasn’t fair to Rayla that she already knew, she wasn’t going to out her to Soren. “No, i’m just pissed at Callum because he didn’t tell me the new friend he made a few nights ago was going to be coming to our school.”

Realization dawned on Callum and Rayla at the same time, and Rayla shot Callum a very dirty look. “He didn’t tell me that he’d told his other friends he’d already met me, either.”

“I panicked and told Claudia I’d met you before I knew you were coming to school here!” said Callum to Rayla, and then turned to Claudia. “And I only found out Rayla was coming to school here this morning!”

Soren chewed thoughtfully, listening to the conversation, before swallowing and grinning. “So let me see if I got the facts straight. Prince Charming here meets a girl, panics and texts Claudia because he doesn’t know how to talk to girls and has a big dumb crush. Claudia, because she’s cool like that, gives this dingus a bunch of advice, which he ignored and blew off because he has the confidence of soggy toast and did the mopey ‘no it’s fine I’ll probably never see her again,’ thing he does sometimes. And THEN said girl - hi, by the way - shows up at school, doesn’t tell her that he blabbed to Claudia about their fateful meeting and doesn’t tell Claudia his crush is now at our school.” He leaned back, completely satisfied with himself. “So am I right or am I right?”

There was a brief pause as the three of them tried to align the facts with Soren’s analysis - hilariously wrong though it was, they each were somewhat mad at themselves that they hadn’t thought up such a good lie on their own.

“Yep! You uh, you sure got me, haha, wow this is embarrassing,” said Callum. 

“Wow, yeah, Callum, super awkward,” said Claudia, laughing nervously. “Next time just talk to her like I advised you.”

Rayla just put her head into her hands, rubbing the base of her horns in a way that she hoped looked like a human enough gesture. Callum blabbing to his friend that she was from the other side was bad enough, but this newcomer’s convoluted fake crush ruse, while… convenient, was awkward and weird and she wasn’t sure how she felt about a human pretending to have romantic feelings for her.

Not that her kind forbade it, it just bore complications, and she definitely didn’t feel that way about him. 

“Ugh, this is so embarrassing,” she said, shaking her head and then meeting Soren’s eye. “I’m Rayla, by the way.”

“Soren!” he replied, reaching across the table to shake her hand before he remembered etiquette and wiped his buttery hand on his pant leg. “Claudia’s my dopey kid sister.”

“You’re the dope,” snarked Claudia back. 

Soren opened his mouth for further banter, but before he could say anything there was a scream and a crash behind him. 

The large panel of glass separating the cafeteria from the hallway shattered, and through the wreckage emerged a massive form. INtangible and barely perceptible at first, it slowly coalesced into a hulking shape, a hunched brute with massive horns that scraped the ceiling. It hunched like a territorial gorilla, its meaty hands dragging the ground as it peered at the room through curtains of long, lank, greasy hair. 

Students screamed and scrambled out of the room. “The hell is that thing!?” shoute Soren, leaping to his feet and gagging as the fetid smell of the creature permeated the room, the smell of a wet swamp and rotting meat. 

Beady red eyes swiveled around on the massive head, its gaze locking onto Rayla, before it roared.

Rayla went pale, then crouched into a defensive stance. “It’s a troll.”


End file.
